Our Modern Culture

"I think that one possible definition of our modern culture is that it is one in which nine-tenths of our intellectuals can't read any poetry." ~ Randall Jarrell

A Giant Among Poets

 

ADRIENNA RICH 1929-2012

It's exhilarating to be alive in a time of awakening consciousness; it can also be confusing, disorienting, and painful. ~ Adrienne Rich

Heard any good metaphors?

"A thousand naked fornicating couples with their moans and contortions are nothing compared to a good metaphor." ~ Charles Simic, The Gettysburg Review, Winter 1995

Unless we read poetry

"Unless we read poetry, we"ll never have our hearts broken by language, which is an indispensable preliminary to a civilized life." ~Anatole Broyard - The New York Times

On Being a Poet

"Being a poet is like having an invisible partner. It isn't easy. But you can't live without it either. Talent is only 10 percent. The rest is obsession." ~ Selma Hill, Contemporary Women's Poetry, 2000

The Poetry Brain

"Poetry is a different area if the brain [from prose] - much closer to music and mathematics." Margaret Atwood, BBC Radio 3, June 1995

Creativity is...

"Creativity is not the finding of a thing but the making something out of it after it is found." – James Russell Lowell

Tuesday Poetry Quote

"A writer who keeps a personal diary uses it to record what he knows. In his poems or stories he sets down what he doesn't know." ~ Adam Zagajewski

Knife Edge...

"A poem that does its work must stand on the knife edge of yes and no. The last line of a poem should have both the yes and the no in it, that's what makes it complex." Dorianne Laux - The Kansas City Star - January 28, 2001


Reading these words from Dorianne Laux spoke to my partiality for poetry that encompasses dissonance; that grand internal conflict. To me, this is the richest poetry of all.

thought for the day on writers

And a little humor to kick off the new year...


There is no way that writers can be tamed and rendered civilized or even cured. The only solution known to science is to provide the patient with an isolation room, where he can endure the acute stages in private and where food can be poked in to him with a stick.   ~   Robert A. Heinlein

Thought for the day...

With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.  ~ Edgar Allan Poe

Thought for the Day

A conservative is one who admires radicals centuries after they're dead.

 ~ Leo Rosten

Hemingway on heros

As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary. ~ Ernest Hemingway

To name something...

To name something is to wait for it in the place you think it will pass.   ~  Amiri Baraka

On Happiness~

"THE ONLY TRUE HAPPINESS COMES FROM SQUANDERING OURSELVES FOR A PURPOSE." ~ William Cowper


Got this from Gretchen Rubin's daily e-mail this morning & thought I'd share.

We are limited...

“I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in life. And I am horribly limited.” 

 Sylvia Plath  - October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963

Though for the Day

Life itself still remains a very effective therapist. ~Karen Horney

We live on the leash of our senses.  ~  Diane Ackerman

Sealing the Deal

A kiss seals two souls for a moment in time.  ~Levende Waters

Thought on Waste and Enjoyment

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. ~ Bertrand Russell