It's not that he lacked poetry. But his poetry was of the body, not the mind. He spoke it in the way he moved, the way he held a hammer, rowed a boat, built a fire. I, on the other hand, was like a brain in a box, a beating heart in a coal scuttle.
Interpretation
The quote contrasts two forms of expression: physical and intellectual.
Meg Rosoff reflects on the difference between two types of creativity—one that is expressed through physical actions and manual skills, as opposed to a more cerebral or abstract form of creativity. The imagery illustrates how one's artistry is shaped by their mode of interaction with the world, suggesting that true poetry can be found in actions as much as in thoughts.
In practice
During a workshop on art and movement, this quote can be used to emphasize the importance of physicality in artistic expression.
Your writing voice is the deepest possible reflection of who you are. The job of your voice is not to seduce or flatter or make well-shaped sentences. In your voice, your readers should be able to hear the contents of your mind, your heart, your soul.
A human being creates complexity by writing a novel on the surface of paper; a weather system creates complexity by writing waves on the surface of an ocean. What is the difference between the information carried in the words of a novel and the information carried on the waves of the sea? Listen, and the waves will speak, and someday, I tell you, you will write your thoughts on the surface of the sea.
I just try to write songs that people are going to have a dialogue about.
A jazz musician is not a jazz musician when he or she is eating dinner or when he or she is with his parents or spouse or neighbors. He's above all a human being . . . the true artform is being a human being.
then, as though it had been waiting on a near by roof for their arrival, the moon came slanting suddenly through the vines and turned the girl's face the color of white roses.
The stuff I'm passionate about is what I write; it isn't multi-million-dollar franchise movies.
I don't think of poetry as a 'rational' activity but as an aural one. My poems usually begin with words or phrases which appeal more because of their sound than their meaning, and the movement and phrasing of a poem are very important to me.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.