Elisa Gabbert
Elisa Gabbert is the author of a number of collections of poetry and nonfiction, including Any Person Is the Only Self, Normal Distance, and The Unreality of Memory & Other Essays. She writes the On Poetry column for the New York Times and was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 2026. She lives in Providence.
DISCIPLINE
Isaac Newton stuck a bodkin in
the back of his eye, as far as it would go
into the cavity behind—that’s
how much some people want to know.
It’s hard to believe—trees turn green,
I wish and it works, but it hurts
and the damage is felt where
we live, not in death, not in hell.
Would I write this on the walls
of a cell and if not, why say it
at all? Why try invent a new math
without infinity—is it heresy?
If Sasha can give up self-loathing
for Lent, I give up the infinite.
Hearsay. A word. I trade it
for silence, an hour of rest.