It's absolutely crucial to maintain my life as a poet.
Edward HirschRead
Poetry is a vocation. It is not a career but a calling.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Poetry is more about passion and purpose than it is about financial success or professional status.
In this quote, Edward Hirsch emphasizes that poetry should be seen as a calling rather than a mere job. It reflects the deep emotional and spiritual commitment of poets, who create out of a necessity to express themselves and connect with the world, rather than simply to earn a living.
Themes
PoetryVocationCallingArtPassion
In practice
Example use cases
In a workshop about finding one's true passion in life, this quote can encourage attendees to pursue their dreams authentically.
More from Edward Hirsch
All quotes →The commitment to working at poetry is important because a poet is a maker, and a poem is a made thing. We have to honor our feelings by working to transform them into something meaningful and lasting.
Edward HirschRead
As far as I'm concerned, freedom is the most important thing to creativity. You should feel free to write in whatever way, whatever language, feels comfortable to you.
Edward HirschRead
The idea that a poem was a made thing stayed with me, and I decided then that I wanted to be an artist, not just a diarist. So I put myself through a kind of apprenticeship in writing poetry, and I understood even then that my practice as a poet was deeply related to my reading.
Edward HirschRead
And every year there is a brief, startling moment _x000D_ When we pause in the middle of a long walk home and _x000D_ Suddenly feel something invisible and weightless _x000D_ Touching our shoulders, sweeping down from the air: _x000D_ It is the autumn wind pressing against our bodies; _x000D_ It is the changing light of fall falling on us.
Edward HirschRead
When poetry separates from song, then the words have to carry all the rhythm themselves; they have to do all the work. They can't rely on the singing voice.
Edward HirschRead
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To the question, ‘Is the cinema an art?’ my answer is, ‘what does it matter?’... You can make films or you can cultivate a garden. Both have as much claim to being called an art as a poem by Verlaine or a painting by Delacroix… Art is ‘making.’ The art of poetry is the art of making poetry. The art of love is the art of making love... My father never talked to me about art. He could not bear the word.
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Don’t go to a museum with a destination. Museums are wormholes to other worlds. There are ecstasy machines. Follow your eyes to wherever they lead you, stop, get very quiet, and the world should begin to change for you. And if you see me, say something! We can talk about it together.
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I'm tempted to say, 'Writing treatments is like designing a film by hiring six million monkeys to tear out pages of an encyclopedia, then you put the pages through a paper-shredder, randomly grab whatever intact lines are left, sing them in Italian to a Spanish deaf-mute, and then make story decisions with the guy via conference call.' But no... compared to writing treatments, that makes sense, too.
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A lot of what making art is, is just being open, and empty. And putting yourself in the right place for things to, literally, come together.
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Composing is improvisation slowed down.
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What I want to give in the theatre is beauty, that's what I want to give.
Edith EvansRead