Thursday, May 24, 2007

Eeeny, Meeny, Miney...MEME

Give us at least 10 quotations pertaining to poetry - from 10 different writers &/or poets which best coincide with your philosophy vis a vis ars poetica. They can be posthumous or otherwise. The order is not important - unless it is to you.



“Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.”
---------------------------------------------------------- Thomas Gray.


“There is poetry as soon as we realize that we possess nothing.”
----------------------------------------------------------- John Cage


"What a poet keeps out of a poem is as necessary to its success as what the poet lets into it."
----------------------------------------------------------- Mary Kinzie


"If we care about readers at all (and not just those in the academy), we have to give them a way into the poem. And I think that we need to remember that clarity does not preclude depth."
------------------------------------------------------------ Claudia Emerson

“Poetry is the power of defining the indefinable in terms of the unforgettable.”
----------------------------------------------------------- - Louis Untermeyer.


“To define what a poem is would require defining human existence. It would require answering why is there something, rather than nothing.”
------------------------------------------------------------- Charles Simic


“Poetry is a language pared down to its essentials.”
-------------------------------------------------------------- Ezra Pound.


"Times change and forms and their meanings alter. Thus new poems are necessary. Their forms must be discovered in the living language of their day, or old forms, embodying exploded concepts, will tyrannize over the imagination."
------------------------------------------------------------– William Carlos Williams.


“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.”
--------------------------------------------------------------- Robert Frost.


"You never ask a poet what he means, you tell him!"
----------------------------------------------------------------Howard Nemerov


I tag, Suzanne, Sam, Collin, Robert & Rachel.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Nick thanks much for the tag. Several of your quotes are precisely the same ones I would consider in my own response. I guess that makes us both accessible, lyric, SoQ fishies swimming upstream in the online post-avant. Nah, I'm kidding.

Would love to respond but am moving house this weekend - and still reeling from my dose of the Ojai festival. So, thanks again for this assemblage of great quotes - hope you don't mind if I steal a couple for the "Random Quotes" sidebar on my site...

sam of the ten thousand things said...

Interesting list, Nick. I'm working on one. Especially like the quotes by Pound and Simic.

Suzanne said...

Wow. I'll need some time to work on this one.

Nick said...

Robert, I like my SoQ fishes served with some sauce a la provencal although I understand that a tabasco-based sauce is indicated.
Online post-avant ; I like the sound of that.

Sam & Suzanne,

I look forward to your lists.

sam of the ten thousand things said...

Done--

Anonymous said...

SoQ seafood always comes with dill, Nick. Lots of dill. :)

Suzanne said...

Mine are up, but only four, I was never all that good at following rules. ;-)

Nick said...

Robert,

Unfortunately, I'm not too partial to dill. C'est la vie.

Suzanne,

Nice choices. Less is more. ;-)

Brian Campbell said...

Lots of brio here. Bravo!

Nick said...

Grazie, Brian.

Collin Kelley said...

Just posted mine, Nick. Thanks for the tag.

Nick said...

Collin, thanks for playing along.

Stu said...

Great list... I definitely identify with the John Cage, the Claudia Emerson and the Charles Simic. I heard a rumour that Simic may be visiting Melbourne later this year (fingers crossed).

Thanks for paying me a visit, and for seeding the meme!

Nick said...

Simic is a poet that I'd definitely like to see read. Thanks for returning the visit.