I learnt all the words worthy of the court of blood So that I could break the rule I learnt all the words and broke them up To make a single word: Homeland.
Mahmoud DarwishRead
The importance of poetry is not measured, finally, by what the poet says but by how he says it.
Interpretation
This quote highlights that the impact of poetry lies in the expression rather than just the content.
Mahmoud Darwish emphasizes that the true value of poetry is rooted in the manner of its expression, suggesting that poetic technique, style, and emotional resonance often carry more significance than the literal meaning of the words themselves. This perspective invites readers to appreciate not only the message conveyed by poets but also the artistic craftsmanship involved in their work, which can evoke deeper feelings and connections.
In practice
This quote could be used in a poetry workshop to emphasize the importance of style in writing.
I learnt all the words worthy of the court of blood So that I could break the rule I learnt all the words and broke them up To make a single word: Homeland.
Far away, our dreams have nothing to do with what we do. The wind carries the night, and passes on, aimless.
Some people ask, 'How do you attract the young and so many different people when your poetry is complicated and different?' I say, 'My accomplishment is that my readers trust me and accept my suggestions for change.'
Against barbarity, poetry can resist only by confirming its attachment to human fragility like a blade of grass growing on a wall while armies march by.
The days have taught you not to trust happiness because it hurts when it deceives.
A person can only be born in one place. However, he may die several times elsewhere: in the exiles and prisons, and in a homeland transformed by the occupation and oppression into a nightmare.
First of all there is always that artistic challenge of creating something. Or the particular experience to take slum life in that period and make something out of it in the form of a book. And then I felt some kind of responsibility to my family.
The man who never in his mind and thoughts travel'd to heaven is no artist.
But the artist persists because he has the will to create, and this is the magic power which can transform and transfigure and transpose and which will ultimately be transmitted to others.
It's like these ideas, these characters, kind of bubble up inside me, and one day they're not there, and the next day they are there. They're alive, and they're whispering in my head and all that stuff, and I want to write about those things.
I am interested in a political art, that is to say an art of ambiguity, contradiction, uncompleted gestures and uncertain ending - an art (and a politics) in which optimism is kept in check, and nihilism at bay.
It is not enough to place colors, however beautiful, one beside the other; colors must also react on one another. Otherwise, you have cacophony.
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