I can't tell you where a poem comes from, what it is, or what it is for: nor can any other man. The reason I can't tell you is that the purpose of a poem is to go past telling, to be recognised by burning.
Interpretation
A poem's essence transcends explanation, aiming to evoke deep recognition rather than clarity.
A. R. Ammons emphasizes that poetry cannot be confined to rigid definitions or purposes. Instead, the true impact of poetry lies in its ability to elicit visceral emotions and experiences that cannot be verbalized, suggesting that the recognition of a poem's worth comes from an internal, almost primal understanding, rather than intellectual analysis.
In practice
During a literary discussion, one might use this quote to illustrate the profound nature of poetry.
Even if you walk exactly the same route each time - as with a sonnet - the events along the route cannot be imagined to be the same from day to day, as the poet's health, sight, his anticipations, moods, fears, thoughts cannot be the same.
If the greatest god is the stillness all the motions add up to, then we must ineluctably be included.
For though we often need to be restored to the small, concrete, limited, and certain, we as often need to be reminded of the large, vague, unlimited, unknown
Definition, rationality, and structure are ways of seeing, but they become prisons when they blank out other ways of seeing.
When we play an unaccompanied Bach suite we may compare ourselves to an actor in Shakespeare's day, creating scenery which did not exist at all, through the power of declamation and suggestion. So in Bach. There is but one voice -- and many voices have to be suggested.
Graffiti ultimately wins out over proper art because it becomes part of your city, it' s a tool; "I'll meet you in that pub, you know, the one opposite that wall with a picture of a monkey holding a chainsaw". I mean, how much more useful can a painting be than that?
My idea of man's chief end was to enrich the world with things of beauty, and have a fairly good time myself while doing so.
Sometimes photographers mistake emotion for what makes a great street photograph.
My contribution to the world is my ability to draw. I will draw as much as I can for as many people as I can for as long as I can.
Honest songs aren`t written for money.
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