Poetry is a fireplace in summer or a fan in winter.
Robert HassRead
I think that the job of poetry, its political job, is to refresh the idea of justice, which is going dead in us all the time.
Interpretation
Poetry serves to revive our understanding and sense of justice, which often fades away in society.
In this quote, Robert Hass emphasizes the vital role of poetry in society as a catalyst for renewing our perspective on justice. He suggests that as time passes, the concept of justice can become stagnant or diminished in our consciousness, and it is through poetry that we can reconnect with and invigorate this essential idea, inspiring thought and action for a more just world.
In practice
Sharing this quote at a poetry reading to highlight the social responsibilities of poets.
Poetry is a fireplace in summer or a fan in winter.
Sometimes from this hillside just after sunset The rim of the sky takes on a tinge Of the palest green, like the flesh of a cucumber When you peel it carefully.
Take the time to write. You can do your life's work in half an hour a day.
There are moments when the body is as numinous as words, days that are the good flesh continuing. Such tenderness, those afternoons and evenings, saying blackberry, blackberry, blackberry.
When I was younger, I was so crazy about poetry that I didn't notice who was noticing. It seemed to me so tremendous and large.
Writing is an incessant process of discovery.
I was very honored to get to be part of 'American Idol.'
Fundamental accuracy of statement is the ONE sole morality of writing.
The photographer's most important and likewise most difficult task is not learning to manage his camera, or to develop, or to print. It is learning to see photographically β that is, learning to see his subject matter in terms of the capacities of his tools and processes, so that he can instantaneously translate the elements and values in a scene before him into the photograph he wants to make.
I still think the revolution is to make the world safe for poetry, meandering, for the frail and vulnerable, the rare and obscure, the impractical and local and small.
I started earning a living as a poet rather early on.
Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.
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