Sometimes, I think the best kind of poem is one in which there is an acute balance between what is humorous and that which is very serious. That balance is very hard to strike. But it can be done.
N. Scott MomadayRead
Indians are marvelous storytellers. In some ways, that oral tradition is stronger than the written tradition.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the importance and richness of oral storytelling in Indian culture compared to written forms.
N. Scott Momaday emphasizes the significance of oral storytelling within Indian culture, suggesting that this form of narrative is a vital and perhaps even more powerful tradition than written storytelling. This highlights the unique connection between storytelling, community, and cultural identity, showcasing how stories passed down orally carry deep meaning and resonance through generations.
In practice
In a lecture on cultural heritage, one could use this quote to discuss the impact of oral storytelling.
Sometimes, I think the best kind of poem is one in which there is an acute balance between what is humorous and that which is very serious. That balance is very hard to strike. But it can be done.
For the storyteller, for the arrowmaker, language does indeed represent the only chance for survival.
There is a great good in returning to a landscape that has had extraordinary meaning in one's life. It happens that we return to such places in our minds irresistibly. There are certain villages and towns, mountains and plains that, having seen them walked in them lived in them even for a day, we keep forever in the mind's eye. They become indispensable to our well-being; they define us, and we say, I am who I am because I have been there, or there.
Writing is not a matter of choice. Writers have to write. It is somehow in their temperament, in the blood, in tradition.
My father was a painter and he taught art. He once said to me, 'I never knew an Indian child who could not draw.'
Coyotes have the gift of seldom being seen; they keep to the edge of vision and beyond, loping in and out of cover on the plains and highlands. And at night, when the whole world belongs to them, they parley at the river with the dogs, their higher, sharper voices full of authority and rebuke. They are an old council of clowns, and they are listened to.
The act of writing a song involves a degree of letting go of yourself, and that's very much being a child.
Music has been my outlet, my gift to all of the lovers in this world. Through it - my music, I know I will live forever.
A number of images put together a certain way become something quite above and beyond what any of them are individually.
Art is not living. It is the use of living. The artist has the ability to take the living and use it in a certain way and produce art.
There are some subjects that can only be tackled in fiction.
Words! Mere words! How terrible they were! How clear, and vivid, and cruel! One could not escape from them. And yet what a subtle magic there was in them! They seemed to be able to give a plastic form to formless things, and to have a music of their own as sweet as that of viol or of lute. Mere words! Was there anything so real as words?
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