Do you know of the poet Jack Gilbert, or his profoundly moving poem, A Brief for the Defense? I was reading this poem aloud to a friend tonight, and realized that I had to simply ditch the post I was intending to polish then publish, and instead, share this provokingly powerful poem with you, too. I will not attempt to tell you what he says in the poem, for I couldn’t possibly do it justice. Please use one of the links in this post to give yourself the gift. I will, however, tell you that this is how it starts: “Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies are not starving someplace, they are starving somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils.”