Voices
"and so poetry is not a shopping list, a casual disquisition
on the colors of the sky, a soporific daydream, or bumpersticker
sloganeering. poetry is a political action undertaken for the sake of
information, the faith, the exorcism, and the lyrical invention, that
telling the truth makes possible. poetry means taking control of the
language of your life. good poems can interdict a suicide, rescue a love
affair, and build a revolution in which speaking and listening to
somebody because the first and last purpose to every social encounter
...
"why should power and language coalesce in poetry? because poetry
is the medium for telling the truth, and because a poem is antithetical
to lies/evasions and superficiality, anyone who becomes a practicing
poet has an excellent chance of becoming somebody real, somebody known,
self-defined, and attuned to and listening and hungering for kindred
real voices utterly/articulately differnt from his or her own voice.
"this
outward and inward attunement seems to me a most reasonable basis for
the political beginning of a beloved community: a democratic state in
which the poeple can trust the names they have invented for themselves
and for each other."
June Jordan
On Poetry
In poetry, there are no casual readers.
Nothing seen, nothing said.
The lyric is almost forgotten in this time of sawing and snoring and scraping.
Energy is the soul of poetry. Explosive active language.
Live in a perpetual great astonishment.
Rhythm depends on expecting.
The literal—the grave of all the dull.
I need the botanist’s leaf more than the poet’s flower.
Put it this way: I detest dogs, but adore wolves.
Eternal apprenticeship is the life of the true poet.
The intense profound sharp longing to make a true poem.
Those who are willing to be vulnerable move among mysteries.
Art is our defense against hysteria and death.
If we muddle and thump through a paraphrase, with side comments, however brilliant, we still do not have the poem.
Talent talks; genius does.
Poetry is an act of mischief.
A poetry of longing: not for escape, but for a greater reality.
The greatest assassin of life is haste.
Make ready for your gifts. Prepare. Prepare.
Theodore Roethke
Links
Teachers & Writers Collaborative
Rosemary Taylor, Fine Artist
Acentos Review
Brooklyn Review
No, Dear
