Sunday, April 10, 2011

Day ten - inspiration and truths

In the world of literature, and poetry in particular, inspiration is omnipresent. The best bits of inspiration are grounded in a truth that aches with reality. These following three quotations fit the bill and are some of the more humbling and simultaneously uplifting ideas about poetry. I have them tacked above my desk and sometimes I find myself lost in the challenges they present.

"Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting." --- Robert Frost

"Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking." --- William Butler Yeats

"A good poet is someone who manages, in a lifetime of standing out in thunderstorms, to be struck by lightning five or six times." --- Randall Jarrell

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