I don’t care whether I’m heard or not, but on the whole, I’d rather be heard.
Berryman
I prefer the absurdity of writing poems to the absurdity of not writing poems.
Wisława Szymborska (via cleversimon)
“The trouble with most poetry, the trouble with most poems, is that they are too full of brilliant things. The poet says a brilliant thing, then he says another brilliant thing, another and another and another. There is always some sense in which these brilliant things fight each other. What the really great poet does is work toward one overwhelming image or action. He creates a wholeness, in which the elements do not clash, and so leaves the reader with one overwhelming impression rather than a series of striking fragments.”
—James Dickey, from “Journals” in Part 1 of Sorties (Louisiana State University Press, 1984)
At Occupy Berkeley, Beat Poets Has New Meaning
Police are now poetry critics. Savaging both Hess, his wife, and Geoffrey O’Brien.
Bob, John has gone in under the water.
However, I have never clogged myself with the praises of pastoral life, nor with nostalgia for an innocent past of perverted acts in pastures. No. One need never leave the confines of New York to get all the greenery one wishes—I can’t even enjoy a blade of grass unless I know there’s a subway handy, or a record store or some other sign that people do not totally regret life.
Distressed Nation Turns To Poet Laureate For Solace
H/t TR Hummer.
He was possessed by poetry, not by his role as a poet.
Paz on Williams
