The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.
Muriel RukeyserRead
The sources of poetry are in the spirit seeking completeness.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes that poetry originates from a deep inner desire for wholeness and fulfillment.
Muriel Rukeyser suggests that the essence of poetry comes from a profound inner yearning for completeness. It reflects the idea that poetry is not merely an art form but a manifestation of the human spirit striving for connection, understanding, and a sense of entirety in life.
In practice
A speaker at a poetry reading could use this quote to highlight the emotional depth of the works being presented.
The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.
A work of art is one through which the consciousness of the artist is able to give its emotions to anyone who is prepared to receive them.
In our period, they say there is free speech. They say there is no penalty for poets, There is no penalty for writing poems. They say this. This is the penalty.
Nourish beginnings, let us nourish beginnings. Not all things are blest, but the seeds of all things are blest. The blessing is in the seed.
The town of Gauley Bridge stands as a pattern for all those places where people are linked even in the middle of their suffering, where people fight against an evil condition so that other people need not go through the same fight.
Always our wars have been our confessions of weakness
You should make something. You should bring something into the world that wasn't in the world before. It doesn't matter what it is. It doesn't matter if it's a table or a film or gardening-everyone should create. You should do something, then sit back and say, 'I did that.'
When you write about sports, you're allowed to engage in mischief. Nothing is at stake.
I've been imitated so well I've heard people copy my mistakes.
From my spirit's gray defeat, From my pulse's flagging beat, From my hopes that turned to sand Sifting through my close-clenched hand, From my own fault's slavery, If I can sing, I still am free. For with my singing I can make A refuge for my spirit's sake, A house of shining words, to be My fragile immortality.
The earth doesn’t care where death occurs. ...It’s the artist, by coming in and writing about it or painting it or taking a photograph of it, that makes the earth powerful and creates death’s memory. Because the land will not remember by itself, but the artist will.
If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it.
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