Poets are excellent students of blizzards and salt and broken statuary, but they are always elsewhere for the test. Any intention in the writing of poetry besides the aim to make a poem, of engaging the materials, SHOULD be disappointed. If the poet does not have the chutzpah to jeopardize habituated assumptions and practices, what will be produced will be sleep without dream, a copy of a copy of a copy.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of authenticity and original creativity in poetry, warning against complacency and imitation.
Dean Young highlights the critical relationship between authentic creativity and the practice of poetry. He argues that true poets must engage deeply with their inspirations and materials, risking their established perceptions to create genuinely original work. Without this courage to challenge conventions, poetry becomes lifeless and repetitive, losing its essence and impact.
In practice
In a workshop on creative writing, to inspire students to take risks in their writing.
When I started, I was an artist; I wanted to be an artist. I became an actor almost by accident. I acted for fifteen years and tried to produce. I looked for stories that were the story beneath the story that you thought you knew, like 'The Candidate'.
The odd thing about being a writer is you do tend to lose yourself in your books. Sometimes it seems like real life is flickering by and you're hardly a part of it. You remember the events in your books better than you remember the events that actually took place when you were writing them.
What are American dry-goods? asked the duchess, raising her large hands in wonder and accentuating the verb. American novels, answered Lord Henry.
Fool," said my muse to me. "Look in thy heart and write.
A joyous little creature, so beautiful, It was as if a gate of Heaven opened as she came in.
I began to exercise a lot of cinematic muscle with the precepts I had learned in the New York art world. Film was intriguing. I began to think of art as elitist; film was not.
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