On poetry
I like poetry because I prefer the attempt to say a true thing to the impulse to instruct or the obsession with the impossible.
Labels: thought
I do not believe that a violent imitation of the horrors of our times is the concern of poetry. Horrors are taken for granted. Disorder is ordinary. People in general take more and more 'in their stride'—the hides grow thicker. I long for poems of an inner harmony in utter contrast to the chaos in which they exist. Insofar as poetry has a social function it is to awaken sleepers by other means than shock.
— Denise Levertov
— Denise Levertov
Saturday, January 09, 2021
