"It is the hardest thing to take chaos and make order of it. Poetry is a veil in front of a heart beating at a very fast pace."

Jericho Brown Literature See all quotes by Jericho Brown →

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“A poem should go beyond what you already know, and if it’s going to go beyond what you already know, a poem might say something that begins to have you question what side you’re on, which, in turn, might begin to have an audience question what side you’re on…”

“A metaphor is a sign of desperation when we need another world to describe what we are feeling. Metaphors are about desperation and safety. We call out to metaphor because a metaphor makes us feel safe.”

“What happens at the beginning of your poem has to—because it’s a poem—be transformed by the end of your poem. So if the triggering moment for the beginning of your poem is a known political moment, I am fine with that, that’s great. But as I’m reading, I expect it to change because that was just the trigger…”

Resonant Thoughts

"The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists, as the mother…"

— G. K. Chesterton

Literature1874–1936

#family

"The chronological order of the MaNDalas, as we saw, is: VI, III, VII, IV, II, V, VIII, IX, X, with the chronological period of MaNDala I spread out over the periods of at least four other MaNDalas ."

— Shrikant Talageri

#philosophy

"One thing that's certain about going outdoors: When you come back inside, you'll be scratching."

— P. J. O'Rourke

Literature1947–2022

"George Oppen and Martin Heidegger: The Philosophy and Poetry of Gelassenheit, and the Language of Faith essay by Burt Kimmelman, published in Jacket Magazine 37"

— George Oppen

Politics1908–1984

#writing