On not failing

This poem says something very important beyond the trite "all good things come to an end."  This poem claims that the end of a good thing does not negate its goodness while it lasted.  Therefore, this poem asks its readers to consider that not every failure should be regarded as failing; at least, not every ending should reflect back upon what ended and cause its former joys to now be counted as failure.  And even beyond that, the poet urges us to consider that even imperfection can be a sort of flying.

Failing and Flying, Jack Gilbert

from Poetry 365

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 said it was pretty but the food was greasy.
I believe that Icarus was not failing as he fell,
but just coming to the end of his triumph.