on poetry
April 16, 2018
“Wasn’t it strange that a poem, written in my vocabulary and as a result of my own thoughts or observations, could, when it was finished, manage to show me something I hadn’t already known?”
Tracy K. Smith
(b. April 16, 1972)
. . . . .
Tracy K. Smith has recently accepted an appointment to serve a second term as the nation’s 22nd Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, for 2018-2019. Congratulations and Happy Birthday!
on poetry
March 27, 2018
“Real poetry is a party, a wild party, a party where anything might happen. A party from which you may never return home.”
Dorothea Lasky
(b. March 27, 1978)
. . . . .
quote from Poetry Is Not a Project (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2011)
photo by Eileen Myles
on poetry
March 18, 2018
“All a poet can do today is warn.”
Wilfred Owen
(March 18, 1893 – November 4, 1918)
. . . . .
quote from the Preface to Poems of Wilfred Owen
on poetry
February 26, 2018
“Not being heard is no reason for silence.” (N’être pas écouté, ce n’est pas une raison pour se taire.)
Victor Hugo
(February 26, 1802 – May 22, 1885)
on poetry
February 19, 2018
“These days, poetry is often thought of as a mode of self-expression; the subject for a lot of poets is their own self-absorption. Poems are thought of as acts of individualism. What we have forgotten, however, is that the roots of poetry are deeply social. The earliest poems were songs of ritual that celebrated the resources of the world around us; the earliest poems were also a means of recording tribal histories.”
Rick Barot
(b. February 19, 1969)
. . . . .
Quote from “Tribute to Lawson Inada”
on writing
February 11, 2018
“Good writing never soothes or comforts. It is no prescription, neither is it diversionary, although it can and should enchant while it explodes in the reader’s face.”
Joy Williams
(b. February 11, 1944)
. . . . .
Photo: © Rollie McKenna
Quote: Ill Nature: Rants and Reflections on Humanity and Other Animals
on poetry
January 30, 2018
“I have always wanted to write a book that ended with the word ‘mayonnaise’.”
Richard Brautigan
(January 30, 1935 – ca. September 16, 1984)
