What poetry is asking us to accept can be difficult. Our proximity to our mortality, the fragility of our existence, how close we live in every moment to nameless abysses, and the way language itself is beautifully, tragically, thrillingly insufficient...these are some of the engines that drive the poem. It's natural to want to turn away from these things. But we have to face them, as best we can, at least sometimes. Poetry can help us in that nearly impossible work.
Milton on speed. I am going to need about a decade to think about that. That delay in syntax, the putting off of the click of the sentence into itsel… - Matthew Zapruder
Milton on speed. I am going to need about a decade to think about that. That delay in syntax, the putting off of the click of the sentence into itsel…
- Matthew Zapruder
Reading a poem is a real thing, a worthy thing. So to be there right with the reader at that moment is part of the effect of a title like "Poem for" … - Matthew Zapruder
Reading a poem is a real thing, a worthy thing. So to be there right with the reader at that moment is part of the effect of a title like "Poem for" …
Thinking in prose is different. I gained an immense amount of respect for people who write prose, and also felt even more sure that the thinking part… - Matthew Zapruder
Thinking in prose is different. I gained an immense amount of respect for people who write prose, and also felt even more sure that the thinking part…
Something can be symbolic without being a mere stand-in or vessel, which just brings us away from the true mystery and dread, into some boring versio… - Matthew Zapruder
Something can be symbolic without being a mere stand-in or vessel, which just brings us away from the true mystery and dread, into some boring versio…
I personally believe the role of poets as poets (which is something different from our obligations as citizens, community members, humans) is to writ… - Matthew Zapruder
I personally believe the role of poets as poets (which is something different from our obligations as citizens, community members, humans) is to writ…
I see sad crushed plastic everywhere and put some thoughts composed of words that do not belong together together and feel a little digital hope. - Matthew Zapruder
I see sad crushed plastic everywhere and put some thoughts composed of words that do not belong together together and feel a little digital hope.
All my closest friends came to me through poetry. My wife, too! Other than my family, poetry is the gravitational force of my life. - Matthew Zapruder
All my closest friends came to me through poetry. My wife, too! Other than my family, poetry is the gravitational force of my life.
That choice to be ready to reject all other purposes, in favor of the possibilities of language freed from utility, is when the writer becomes a poet. - Matthew Zapruder
That choice to be ready to reject all other purposes, in favor of the possibilities of language freed from utility, is when the writer becomes a poet.
If freedom in the imagination is a privilege, it's one I believe everyone should have, as a basic human right. I also believe that poems not only mak… - Matthew Zapruder
If freedom in the imagination is a privilege, it's one I believe everyone should have, as a basic human right. I also believe that poems not only mak…
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