Tear It Down

Tear It Down


We find out the heart
only by dismantling what
the heart knows.
By redefining the morning,
we find a morning
that comes just after darkness.
We can break through marriage into marriage.
By insisting on love we spoil it,
get beyond affection
and wade mouth-deep into love.
We must unlearn the constellations
to see the stars.
But going back toward childhood
will not help.
The village is not better than Pittsburgh.
Only Pittsburgh is more than Pittsburgh.
Rome is better than Rome
in the same way
the sound of raccoon tongues
licking the inside walls
of the garbage tub
is more than the stir of them
in the muck of the garbage.
Love is not enough.
We die
and are put into the earth forever.
We should insist while there is still time.
We must eat through the wildness
of her sweet body already in our bed
to reach the body within that body.


Jack Gilbert

Posted over on American Poems