A studio, like a poem, is an intimacy and a freedom you can look out from, into each part of your life and a little beyond.
Jane HirshfieldRead
One reason to write a poem is to flush from the deep thickets of the self some thought, feeling, comprehension, question, music, you didn't know was in you, or in the world.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writing poetry can reveal unexpected thoughts and emotions from within yourself and the world around you.
This quote by Jane Hirshfield emphasizes the transformative power of poetry as a medium of expression. It suggests that through the act of writing poetry, one can uncover hidden feelings and insights that were previously unrecognized, both internally and in the broader world. Poetry serves as a tool for exploration and discovery, allowing the poet to give voice to the complexities of their inner life and the nuances of existence.
Themes
PoemThoughtFeelingExpressionSelf-DiscoveryArt
In practice
Example use cases
In a poetry workshop, one might say, 'As Jane Hirshfield suggested, writing poetry helps us uncover feelings we never knew were inside us.'
More from Jane Hirshfield
All quotes →What we want from art is whatever is missing from the lives we are already living and making. Something is always missing, and so art-making is endless.
Jane HirshfieldRead
as some strings, untouched, sound when no one is speaking. So it was when love slipped inside us.
Jane HirshfieldRead
Tree It is foolish to let a young redwood grow next to a house. Even in this one lifetime, you will have to choose. That great calm being, this clutter of soup pots and books-- Already the first branch-tips brush at the window. Softly, calmly, immensity taps at your life.
Jane HirshfieldRead
I write because to write a new sentence, let alone a new poem, is to cross the threshold into both a larger existence and a profound mystery. A thought was not there, then it is. An image, a story, an idea about what it is to be human, did not exist, then it does. With every new poem, an emotion new to the heart, to the world, speaks itself into being.
Jane HirshfieldRead
Zen pretty much comes down to three things -- everything changes; everything is connected; pay attention.
Jane HirshfieldRead
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You're...writing for other writers to an extent-the dead writers whose work you admire, as well as the living writers you like to read.
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The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast; but there are also colors contrary to each other, that is, which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it.
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