Man is a complex being: he makes deserts bloom - and lakes die.
Gil Scott-HeronRead
A good poet feels what his community feels. _x000D_ Like if you stub your toe, the rest of your body hurts.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A good poet resonates with the emotions and experiences of their community.
This quote by Gil Scott-Heron emphasizes the deep connection between a poet and their community. It suggests that a true poet not only articulates their own feelings but also embodies the collective emotions and struggles of the people around them, much like how stubbing a toe causes a resonating pain throughout the body, highlighting the interdependent nature of human experiences.
Themes
PoetryCommunityEmpathyEmotionConnection
In practice
Example use cases
In a poetry reading, this quote could be used to introduce a poem that reflects community experiences.
More from Gil Scott-Heron
All quotes βThe revolution will be no re-run brothers,_x000D_ The revolution will be live.
Gil Scott-HeronRead
You will not be able to stay home, brother./You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out./You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,/Skip out for beer during commercials,/Because the revolution will not be televised.
Gil Scott-HeronRead
I've always had questions about what it meant to be a protester, to be in the minority. Are the people who are trying to find peace, who are trying to have the Constitution apply to everybody, are they really the radicals? We're not protesting from the outside. We're inside.
Gil Scott-HeronRead
Every once in a while, you live long enough to get the respect that people didn't want to give while you were trying to become a senior citizen.
Gil Scott-HeronRead
You know what has made me the happiest I've ever been? Seeing my son and daughter graduate from college. More than wanting them to be educated, I wanted them to be nice people. To see that they have become both is just a wonderful thing.
Gil Scott-HeronRead
Similar quotes
[A writer is] a priest of eternal imagination, transmuting the daily bread of experience into the radiant body of everliving life.
James JoyceRead
It's hard in America as a writer of color, an actor of color, not to get caught up in race and culture. But you're also supposed to be able to write characters and scenes in a way where it's just a matter of fact, a component.
John ChoRead
Improvisation is not the expression of accident but rather of the accumulated yearnings, dreams and wisdom of our very soul.
Yehudi MenuhinRead
Objective painting is not good painting unless it is good in the abstract sense. A hill or tree cannot make a good painting just because it is a hill or tree. It is lines and colors put together so that they may say something.
Georgia O'KeeffeRead
How many of the original songs survive intact from the slave cabins? Probably not many in their original form. Time has transformed them like light in a prism. What we hope to present is a version of those spirituals, and they speak not just to black Americans, but to people worldwide.
Kathleen BattleRead
I'm just glad that I'm the musical equivalent of a character actress, because blues singers can keep singing and having an audience at 35, and someone like Madonna's gonna have to find something else to do, 'cos I don't care how pointy those bras are that she wears, they're still gonna look a little odd when she's 55!
Bonnie RaittRead