Poetry’s a Gnomic utterance from
Which the Soul springs, Fluttering²
Brave Poets, keep back nothing! Look
Godward – speak Truth in worthy song
From Earnest soul – hold, in high poetic
Duty: the truest Truth, the fairest Beauty³
On all the Shores of the World: a Fiercer
Iambic Verse – to be Fed from my Being⁴
The Best Poems aren’t ones in which the poet
Tries hard to give form to a theory or a truth, but
The ones in which the Poet’s Temperament, their
Capacity for Love, their Sincerity, find expression⁵
The Poet’s Task is to make Clear to themself, and
Thus to others, the Temporal & Eternal Questions⁶
Symphonies rise, a Glory out of darkness, and the
Crazy Poets, cry out: “a Terrible Beauty is born”⁷
Things Vanish into the shadows of each other
And of themselves, but with the Reflections
Of these shadows – Poems return to Light⁸
True Poetry is what doesn’t pretend to be
Poetry: it’s in the Dogged Drafts of a few
Maniacs – seeking the New Encounter⁹
Poetry is Not a Luxury – it is the
Vital Necessity to our existence¹⁰
¹ Pablo Neruda tr. Alastair Reid, Poetry
² Joyce Carol Oates, Poetry Is the Gnomic Utterance
³ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, The Dead Pan
⁴ Saint-John Perse tr. Denis Devlin, Exile
⁵ Hermann Hesse tr. Richard & Clara Winston, Magister Ludi
⁶ Ibsen, quoted by Denise Levertov in Three Meditations
⁷ Ursula K. Le Guin, Paradise Lost
⁸ Inger Christenson tr. Susanna Nied, Silk, the Universe, Language, the Heart
⁹ Francis Ponge tr. Beth Archer, The Silent World Is Our Only Homeland
¹⁰ Audre Lorde, Poetry Is Not a Luxury