Writing a book of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.
Interpretation
This quote compares writing poetry to a delicate act that produces a subtle and distant response.
Don Marquis uses the imagery of dropping a rose petal into the Grand Canyon as a metaphor for writing poetry. It highlights the fleeting nature of poetry and how the impact of one's words may not be immediately felt or recognized, much like the quiet echo that follows the fall of a delicate petal in a vast space. This suggests that poetry carries deep beauty but its significance may only resonate over time, akin to how art can evoke feelings long after it's created.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a poetry reading to emphasize the quiet power of poetry.
From 'the lesson of the moth': and before i could argue him out of his philosophy he went and immolated himself on a patent cigar lighter i do not agree with him myself i would rather have half the happiness and twice the longevity but at the same time i wish there was something i wanted as badly as he wanted to fry himself
When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: 'Whose?'
it is better to be a part of beauty for one instant and then cease to exist than to exist forever and never be a part of beauty
Remember you love writing. It wouldn’t be worth it if you didn’t. If the love fades, do what you need to and get it back.
All the stuff I love most in game storytelling is never the big-picture stuff; it's the stuff that feels like curlicues, stuff that's just there because it's a game and because you can do it.
One has a nose. The nose scents and it chooses. An artist is simply a kind of pig snouting truffles.
I wrote poetry from the time I could write. That was the only way I could begin to express who I was but the poems didn't make sense to my teachers. They didn't rhyme. They were about the wind sounds, the planets' motions, never about who I was or how I felt. I didn't think I felt anything. I was this mind more than a body or a heart. My mind photographing the stars, hearing the wind.
The way I write my songs is that I have to believe what I’m writing about, and that’s why they always end up being so personal - because the kind of artists I like, they convince me, they totally win me over straight away in that thing. Like, “Oh my God, this song is totally about me.”
Which painting in the National Gallery would I save if there was a fire? The one nearest the door of course.
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