Imitating Jack Gilbert's Poem "Guilty"

Guilty
by Jack Gilbert

The man certainly looked guilty.
Ugly, ragged, and not clean. Not to mention
their finding him there in the woods
with her body. Neighbors told how he was
always playing with dead squirrels,
mangled dogs, even snakes. He said
those were the only things that would
allow him to get close. "Look at me,"
the old man said with uncomplaining
simplicity, "I'm already one of the dead
among the dead. It's hard to watch things
humiliated the way death does it.
Possums smeared on the road, birds with ants
want privacy for their disgrace.
It's true I washed the dirt from her face
and the blood off the body. Combed her hair.
I slept beside her, at her feet for two days,
the way my dog used to. I got the dress
on the best I could. She looked so neglected.
Like garbage thrown in the weeds.
Like nobody cared because he had done that
to her. I kept thinking about how long
she is going to be alone now. I knew
the police would take pictures and put them
in the papers naked and open so people
eating breakfast could look at her. I wanted
to give her spirit enough time to get ready."

Guilty

by Daisy

He felt horrible after that.
Anger, depression, and certainly bad.

Especially when he
was called out upon his mom where
she told him off. His friends knew him
where he would laugh, and have
fun with everything that he did.
Family and friends were the things
that he loved so much. "Do you see,"
is what he said really simple
and calm, "I have done all that I can
to mess things up. It's not that easy
to watch things that I've seen.
You see road killed deers, cars running over
birds with no care. Sometimes the smallest
creature wants care in life.
Yes I did hurt her every possible way I
could where I denied I did. I changed her.
I didn't want to, but she did because she cared,
especially when times were really rough. I gave her love
and she gave it back. I neglected her sometimes.
Like a child being denied candy.
Like nobody told me to do that to
her. I didn't want to lose her because
I know she could do better. It's obvious
that her friends would be by her side
and her family will to so everyone
will know that I did bad. I wanted
to love her more, but her love was gone."

My Experience Imitating "Guilty"

So where do I begin? You know when you see movies where some people tend to find things just by dropping something or turn on the radio and listen to the first station that is set on the radio? That's kind of how I discovered this poem. I didn't know which poem to imitate or how to go about this assignment that I just decided to open the book and the first poem that I saw from both pages I would begin to imitate. It worked for me!

While I was reading "Guilty," I sensed that there was more to the poem besides someone just describing a crime scene. I thought there were a presence of love that had gone wrong where domestic violence was an issue, as well as a sense of regret. I sensed that the Jack Gilbert was making the character sound not only descriptive, but more narrative as well. It was almost as if the character was giving a police statement where they describe the events that lead to the scene and what the result was after.

When I began to write my poem, I tried to use the same number of words in a sentence just as Jack Gilbert. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn't, but overall I think it's the same number word count....I think is the key word here. I decided to write my poem based on what I thought was Jack Gilbert's idea of remorse, regret, and what would the character in the poem say after him describing the crime scene that he has stated in the poem "Guilty."

This was something very new and different for me to write about, because I myself have never wrote a imitation poem and this was somewhat challenging, especially since I had to try to put myself in Jack Gilbert's position of him interpreting this poem. In the end though, it was something where I was able to write about what I thought was Jack Gilbert's interpretation and I was able to understand the poem more and see it in a different light.