icarus was not failing as he fell

Photo: Eddie Major "Icarus Fall"

<www.eddiemajor.com>

Failing and Flying

Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.

It's the same when love comes to an end,

or the marriage fails and people say

they knew it was a mistake, that everybody

said it would never work. That she was

old enough to know better. But anything

worth doing is worth doing badly.

Like being there by that summer ocean

on the other side of the island while

love was fading out of her, the stars

burning so extravagantly those nights that

anyone could tell you they would never last.

Every morning she was asleep in my bed

like a visitation, the gentleness in her

like antelope standing in the dawn mist.

Each afternoon I watched her coming back

through the hot, stony field after swimming,

the sea light behind her and the huge sky

on the other side of that. Listened to her

while we ate lunch. How can they say

the marriage failed? Like the people who

came back from Provence (when it was Provence)

and say it was pretty but the food was greasy

I believe Icarus was not failing as he fell,

but coming to the end of his triumph.

– Jack Gilbert from Refusing Heaven

It might seem like Jack Gilbert is just talking about marriage, but I
think he's also talking about the instinct to try to touch the sun. Is it
failing if you fall trying to touch your version of the sun? Is it
better to lose your wings than to never have them at all?

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