skip to main | skip to sidebar

The Virtual World

Poetry, the imagination, and the creative life.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

An nice excerpt from a Richard Hugo AWP address over at Nothing to Say & Saying It.


Why are we writing? A silly question, granted. We write because we can’t stop, or as Bill Stafford says, for the same reason we talk. But there’s an even more serious answer, and it is one that has evolved in our time. We write to validate our lives, our relations with the world and with each other. Literature will have to take care of itself.

*

And over at Reginald Sheperd's blog, Why I Write, revised.

*
Posted by Peter at 7:52 AM
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest

No comments:

Post a Comment

Newer Post Older Post Home
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • Palindrome Poems
    A palindrome is word, phrase, or other text whose letters spell the same backward and forward. Some well-known examples are MADAM I’M ADAM, ...
  • Happy Happy
    The floors are all sanded down and are looking great. It's amazing how much paler they are with all the old finish gone. We are going wi...
  • Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur
    Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound amantes sunt amentes lovers are lunatics Carpe carpum Seize the fish Nihil curo de ista tua stulta...
  • The "New" Poetry Northwest
      The inaugural issue of the "new" Poetry Northwest came in the mail Saturday, and what a delight! The new Poetry Northwest is go...
  • What's Your Line?
    Your title Which Mode Is Most Interesting to You at the Current Moment? Narrative Confessional Post-Confessional Personal ...
  • Poetry Runway, Season Three
    Day of Show, Runway Stage: Heidi: In Poetry, one day you're in, the next day you're out. Flashback: Tim in the writing studio with t...
  • Home and Warm
    Dean passed all the tests with flying colors. They adjusted his blood pressure meds, and hopefully that'll do the trick. It's funn...
  • New Poetry Press
    According to The Seattle Times, a benefactor named Charlie Wright is planning to start a new "for-profit" (or at least not not-for...
  • Goldfish
       They say a goldfish has only a three-second memory. What I wouldn't give for that.
  • Tête-à-tête
    Tête-à-tête My heart is like a singing bird whose nest has caught on fire. A fire started by a lit cigarette, an oyster bisque. Ponies...

Some Poems Online

  • "Magnolia Blossom"
  • Body Talk
  • Crossing the Pear
  • "Wordsword" "Adagio"
  • "Twenty Years After His Passing, My Father Appears . . ."
  • "Think or Swim"
  • "The Cruciverbalist"
  • "Reconsidering the Seven"
  • "October Journal"
  • "Nursemaid's Elbow"
  • "Lost in Translation"
  • "Holy Shit"
  • "Her Name is Rose"
  • "Fugue"
  • "Anagrammer" (video)
  • "Anagrammer"
  • "After the Pillow Book"

Blog Archive

  • ►  2013 (15)
    • ►  June (1)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  April (3)
    • ►  March (4)
    • ►  February (2)
    • ►  January (3)
  • ►  2012 (44)
    • ►  December (4)
    • ►  November (3)
    • ►  October (4)
    • ►  September (3)
    • ►  August (4)
    • ►  July (3)
    • ►  June (1)
    • ►  April (3)
    • ►  March (7)
    • ►  February (6)
    • ►  January (6)
  • ►  2011 (96)
    • ►  December (5)
    • ►  November (6)
    • ►  October (3)
    • ►  September (8)
    • ►  August (7)
    • ►  July (8)
    • ►  June (7)
    • ►  May (9)
    • ►  April (10)
    • ►  March (10)
    • ►  February (13)
    • ►  January (10)
  • ►  2010 (121)
    • ►  December (12)
    • ►  November (7)
    • ►  October (11)
    • ►  September (9)
    • ►  August (8)
    • ►  July (10)
    • ►  June (9)
    • ►  May (14)
    • ►  April (10)
    • ►  March (11)
    • ►  February (8)
    • ►  January (12)
  • ►  2009 (147)
    • ►  December (8)
    • ►  November (8)
    • ►  October (11)
    • ►  September (5)
    • ►  August (5)
    • ►  July (10)
    • ►  June (9)
    • ►  May (20)
    • ►  April (20)
    • ►  March (14)
    • ►  February (19)
    • ►  January (18)
  • ►  2008 (246)
    • ►  December (22)
    • ►  November (16)
    • ►  October (27)
    • ►  September (22)
    • ►  August (27)
    • ►  July (25)
    • ►  June (28)
    • ►  May (23)
    • ►  April (21)
    • ►  March (21)
    • ►  February (12)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ▼  2007 (340)
    • ►  December (20)
    • ►  November (26)
    • ▼  October (38)
      • Trick or Treat? Yet Another GOP Sex Scandal!
      • This is pretty incredible to read about. Who is in...
      • this will disappear soon
      • Jupiter Rising - Electropop
      • Jezebel: Harlot Queen?
      • It's All ABout We
      • Went to hear Oliver de la Paz and Aimee Nezhukumat...
      • Mighty Tieton!
      • When Doctors Become Patients
      • The Specialist
      • Thanks to Brent for the link to this essay by Davi...
      • Listen to Pamela and her students read fishbowl po...
      • Watch Monday night's McNeil-Lehrer News Hour featu...
      • What Makes You Real?
      • Doppleganger?
      • What I've Been Reading This Week
      • Lego Land
      • Maz Jobrani - Persians and Arabs
      • A lovely poem by Kathleen Flenniken on American Li...
      • POETRY READING (I can't go to this tonight, becaus...
      • Tuesday Potpourri
      • From the I *Heart* Mondays File
      • You Gotta See this Show!
      • A New Wing
      • The Darjeeling Limited
      • An nice excerpt from a Richard Hugo AWP address ov...
      • Did you hear Naomi Wolf's interview on NPR yesterd...
      • Putting the Garden to Rest
      • The Upper Left Hand Corner
      • I am enjoying the new issue of Seattle Review, whi...
      • Trifecta
      • Had a fun time reading in Ballard last night with ...
      • Looks like I have a poem up on American Life in Po...
      • From the Borowitz Report
      • Take This Quiz!
      • How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail...
      • Dylan is brilliant
      • Lie Soap
    • ►  September (24)
    • ►  August (24)
    • ►  July (35)
    • ►  June (31)
    • ►  May (27)
    • ►  April (30)
    • ►  March (30)
    • ►  February (25)
    • ►  January (30)
  • ►  2006 (421)
    • ►  December (30)
    • ►  November (28)
    • ►  October (38)
    • ►  September (34)
    • ►  August (41)
    • ►  July (37)
    • ►  June (35)
    • ►  May (27)
    • ►  April (47)
    • ►  March (34)
    • ►  February (34)
    • ►  January (36)
  • ►  2005 (414)
    • ►  December (41)
    • ►  November (36)
    • ►  October (45)
    • ►  September (32)
    • ►  August (42)
    • ►  July (37)
    • ►  June (33)
    • ►  May (39)
    • ►  April (30)
    • ►  March (35)
    • ►  February (25)
    • ►  January (19)
 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Poetry can communicate before it is understood. ~T. S. Eliot

*


Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history. ~ Plato

*


A poet's work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep. ~ Salman Rushdie

*


Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason. ~ Novalis

*


Poetry is what maintains our capacity for contemplation and difficulty. — Carolyn Forche

*


Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild. — Denis Diderot

*


Sometimes something wants to be said, sometimes a way of saying wants to be used. — Paul Valéry

*