A poem, as a manifestation of language and thus essentially dialogue, can be a message in a bottle, sent out in the –not always greatly hopeful-belief that somewhere and sometime it could wash up on land, on heartland perhaps. Poems in this sense too are under way: they are making toward something. Toward what? Toward something standing open, occupiable, perhaps toward an addressable Thou, toward an addressable reality.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that poetry serves as a means of communication, expressing deeper truths and emotions that may reach someone in the future.
Paul Celan's quote reflects on the nature of poetry as both a form of dialogue and a vessel for unexpressed thoughts and feelings. It compares poems to messages in a bottle, indicating that they are sent into the world with the hope they will connect with others, transcending time and space to find meaning in a receptive audience. The reference to an 'addressable Thou' highlights the desire for connection and understanding, suggesting that poetry seeks to engage with an open and responsive reality.
In practice
In a discussion on the power of poetry during a literary festival.
With a changing key, you unlock the house where the snow of what’s silenced drifts. Just like the blood that bursts from Your eye or mouth or ear, so your key changes. Changing your key changes the word That may drift with flakes. Just like the wind that rebuffs you, Clenched round your word is the snow.
Poetry is a sort of homecoming.
Each arrow you shoot off carries its own target into the decidedly secret tangle
Only truthful hands write true poems. I cannot see any basic difference between a handshake and a poem.
no one bears witness for the witness
in the air, there your root remains, there, in the air
I never plot out my novels in terms of the tone of the book. Hopefully, once a story is begun it reveals itself
I believe that as a writer and a director, you're only providing the skeleton of a character, and you're hiring actors to fill it out.
For me, being a complete artist means not necessarily just being in front of the camera, but being behind the camera or being the originator or creator of something.
An artist must possess Nature. He must identify himself with her rhythm, by efforts that will prepare the mastery which will later enable him to express himself in his own language.
Those who want to be serious photographers, you're really going to have to edit your work. You're going to have to understand what you're doing. You're going to have to not just shoot, shoot, shoot. To stop and look at your work is the most important thing you can do.
Like I can't cry for myself so I will let this song take all of the things inside I can't let anyone else see and offer it up, as if the sound were some kind of god, and my pain is some kind of sacrifice.
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