"Poetry is a rich, full-bodied whistle, cracked ice crunching in pails, the night that numbs the leaf, the duel of two nightingales, the sweet pea that has run wild, Creation's tears in shoulder blades."
- Boris Pasternak
"If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know it is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know this is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?" - Emily Dickinson
Good one. Although, when I think about it, it's depressing how many good quotes there are about poetry, and how much bad poetry there is.
ReplyDeleteI think it has something to do with poetry's inherent ineffability, the fact that many people are aware of its value but have a hard time achieving its full potential. To me, it's a spiritual question - just because I believe there is a divine presence in the world doesn't mean I know much about it, much less that anyone can say what she/he/it wants us humans to do with our lives. Likewise, poetry is an ideal that we can - most of the time - merely attempt and approach.
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