Jack Gilbert's Poems, THE DANCE MOST OF ALL

Jack Gilbert has a new book of poems, The Dance Most Of All, and I must say I am pleasantly surprised by them. I figured he was doing more retread than original art, but he isn't. Mr. Gilbert is a very gifted poet with a brilliant ear. Although his poems are narrative, there also exists a dynamic song within them. Gilbert has never been afraid to deal with his emotions. He has had at least three deep and loving relationships. His most famous one was with a Japanese woman, Michiko Nogami, who died of cancer. He remains friends with Linda Gregg who he was married to prior to Nogami.

The interesting story about Jack Gilbert is that he was discovered by Gordon Lish in California while Lish was cavorting with the likes of Ken Kesey and Neal Cassady. The remarkable literary magazine Genesis West was being edited by Gordon Lish, and Gilbert found his way into the pages of that great rag first as poet and then as controversial and combative poetry editor untill Lish had to fire him. If there ever was a collectible litmag available still at a reasonable price, this is it. In this particular volume of Genesis West, Lish includes poems of Jack Gilbert, an interview, and a celebration by other luminaries for the poetic genius already recognized by his peers. The year of publication was 1962 when Gilbert was thirty-eight years old, and just after he had won the Yale Young Poets Award with his first volume, Views of Jeopardy. Shortly thereafter Gilbert would leave for Greece, not to return for twenty years until Lish published his second volume of poems titled Monolithos. Gordon Lish has been getting quite a bit of press lately, mostly negative, for his editing and shaping of the work of Raymond Carver.

Lish is an acquired taste, but one you must continually have once you get the hang of him. He is noted for teaching fiction writing for over thirty years, being an editor at Knopf for over twenty, and in the seventies being the editor of Esquire who brought the likes of Ray Carver to the national stage.