The poetic image is an embrace of opposite realities, and rhyme a copulation of sounds; poetry eroticizes language and the world, because the operation is erotic to begin with.
—Octavio Paz, "The Double Flame"
astonished to finish
I am always astonished when I finish anything. Astonished and depressed. My instinct for perfection should inhibit me until I get started. But I distract myself and do it. What I achieve is a product in me, not by applying my will but by giving into it. I begin because I'm not motivated to think; I conclude because I haven't the nerve to leave off. The book is my act of cowardice.
—Fernando Pessoa, "Always Astonished: A Journal," Always Astonished: Selected Prose (City Lights Books, 1988), translated by Edwin Honig
—Fernando Pessoa, "Always Astonished: A Journal," Always Astonished: Selected Prose (City Lights Books, 1988), translated by Edwin Honig
starts here ends there
A successful poem starts in one position and ends at a very different one, often a contradictory or opposite one; yet there has been no break in the unity of the poem.
—Randall Jarrell,“Levels and Opposites: Structure in Poetry”
—Randall Jarrell,“Levels and Opposites: Structure in Poetry”
cat about the house
A poem is about something the way a cat is about the house.
—Allen Grossman
[Often cited as: "Art is about something the way a cat is about the house."]
—Allen Grossman
[Often cited as: "Art is about something the way a cat is about the house."]
get it right
Poetry is getting something right in language.
Howard Nemerov, “Poetry and Meaning,” A Howard Nemerov Reader (Columbia Univ. Press, 1991, p281)
Howard Nemerov, “Poetry and Meaning,” A Howard Nemerov Reader (Columbia Univ. Press, 1991, p281)
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