... poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action. Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought. The farthest horizons of our hopes and fears are cobbled by our poems, carved from the rock experiences of our daily lives.
Interpretation
Poetry is essential for expressing our hopes and experiences, shaping our understanding of life.
In this quote, Audre Lorde emphasizes the fundamental role of poetry in our lives, asserting that it is not merely an artistic luxury but a crucial element of human existence. She explains that poetry helps us articulate our innermost thoughts and emotions, transforming abstract ideas into language that can inspire action and foster understanding. By naming the nameless, poetry enables us to navigate our experiences, giving voice to our fears, aspirations, and the complex realities of life.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of the arts in education, this quote can highlight how poetry enriches our lives.
The fact that we are here and that I speak these words is an attempt to break that silence and bridge some of those differences between us, for it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken.
There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.
There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.
I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.
I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.
There's always someone asking you to underline one piece of yourself - whether it's Black, woman, mother, dyke, teacher, etc. - because that's the piece that they need to key in to. They want to dismiss everything else.
The merit of poetry, in its wildest forms, still consists in its truth-truth conveyed to the understanding, not directly by the words, but circuitously by means of imaginative associations, which serve as its conductors.
Most people wouldn't know music if it came up and bit them on the ass.
We show people that anybody can paint a picture that they're proud of. It may never hang in the Smithsonian, but it will certainly be something that they'll hang in their home and be proud of. And that's what it's all about.
In my writing, as much as I could, I tried to find the good, and praise it.
The only time I have a good hunch the audience is going to be there is when I make the sequel to 'Jurassic Park' or I make another Indiana Jones movie. I know I've got a good shot at getting an audience on opening night. Everything else that is striking out into new territory is a crap shoot.
I am sure the next step will be the electronic image, and I hope I shall live to see it. I trust that the creative eye will continue to function, whatever technological innovations may develop.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.