on poetry
September 25, 2020
“Fundamentally,
I started writing
to save my life.”
Cherríe L. Moraga
(b. September 25, 1952)
. . . . .
photo
on poetry
September 13, 2020
“[Back when I was writing poetry,] I was surrounded by poetic language, feeling almost stifled as the language became increasingly heavier, stronger and thicker around me. Whatever I did, I came up against language. This time, when I tried writing something with no line divisions, something tightly filled with letters, something that involves clearer passage of time and characters’ actions, I felt that the language, which had become heavy and stiff, suddenly flowed freely.”
Hiromi Itō
(b. September 13, 1955)
on poetry
September 7, 2020
“My personal hobbies are reading, listening to music, and silence.”
Edith Sitwell
(September 7, 1887 – December 9, 1964)
. . . . .
photo
on poetry
August 29, 2020
“A literary influence is never just a literary influence. It’s also an influence in the way you see everything — in the way you feel your life.”
Thom Gunn
(August 29, 1929 – April 25, 2004)
. . . . .
photo
quote from 1970 notebook, cited in At the Barriers: On the Poetry of Thom Gunn, Joshua Weiner, ed.
on poetry
August 19, 2020
“A poem that inspires others to write poems, a poem that gives rise to hundreds, even thousands of other poems is a poor second to a poem, or any work of art, that inspires even one person to change his or her life to turn toward greater meaning, or the quest for greater meaning.”
Li-Young Lee
(b. August 19, 1957)
on poetry
August 17, 2020
“Silence is also a form of speaking.”
Herta Müller
(b. August 17, 1953)
. . . . .
Photo U. Montan © The Nobel Foundation
quote
on poetry
August 7, 2020
“To recite my poems to an audience is to be slapped awake by my limitations. I confront the infinite chasm between the audience’s conception of Poet and the underwhelming evidence of me as that poet.”
Cathy Park Hong
(b. August 7, 1976)
. . . . .
photo by Beowulf Sheehan
quote from Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning
on poetry
August 2, 2020
“You write in order to change the world … if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way people look at reality, then you can change it.”
James Baldwin
(August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987)
. . . . .
photo by Allan Warren
quote
on poetry
July 29, 2020
“Publishing a book of poetry is like dropping
a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.”
Don Marquis
(July 29, 1878 – December 29, 1937)
. . . . .
photo
on poetry
July 22, 2020
“Until we are all free, we are none of us free.”
Emma Lazarus
(July 22, 1849 – November 19, 1887)
