Poetry is for me Eucharistic. You take someone else's suffering into your body, their passion comes into your body, and in doing that you commune, you take communion, you make a community with others.
Interpretation
Poetry connects people by allowing individuals to experience and share in the suffering and passion of others.
In this quote, Mary Karr highlights the transformative power of poetry, comparing it to the act of communion in the Eucharist. She suggests that poetry allows readers to absorb the feelings and struggles of others, creating a deep sense of community and shared experience through the art of words. This sharing not only fosters empathy but also unites people through their collective emotional experiences.
In practice
During a poetry reading event, I shared this quote to express the power of poetic connection.
There's a space at the bottom of an exhale, a little hitch between taking in and letting out that's a perfect zero you can go into. There's a rest point between the heart muscle's close and open - an instant of keenest living when you're momentarily dead. You can rest there.
Mother’s particular devils had remained mysterious to me for decades. So had her past. Few born liars ever intentionally embark in truth’s direction, even those who believe that such a journey might axiomatically set them free.
I was 40 years old before I became an overnight success, and I'd been publishing for 20 years.
I always say that a poet loves the world, and the prose writer needs to create an alternative world.
Childhood was terrifying for me. A kid has no control. You're three feet tall, flat broke, unemployed, and illiterate. Terror snaps you awake. You pay keen attention. People can just pick you up and move you and put you down.
Reading is socially accepted disassociation. You flip a switch and you’re not there anymore. It’s better than heroin. More effective and cheaper and legal.
Writing is like making love. Don't worry about the orgasm, just concentrate on the process.
Why be in music, why write songs, if you can't use them to explore life or an idealized vision of life? I believe a lot of our lives are spent asleep, and what I've been trying to do is hold on to those moments when a little spark cuts through the fog and nudges you.
I write by hand, making many, many corrections. I would say I cross out more than I write. I have to hunt for words when I speak, and I have the same difficulty when writing.
The trouble with music appreciation in general is that people are taught to have too much respect for music they should be taught to love it instead.
A songwriter's supreme challenge is being complex and simple at the same time
Songs for me are like a message in a bottle. You send them out to the world, and maybe the person who you feel that way about will hear about it someday.
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