dumbfoundry

Jane Hirshfield: 'There is only one real reason to read a poem, and that is to find your way to a larger life than would otherwise be yours to live. This is also the only reason to write a poem. All the other reasons a poem might come to exist—as courtship gesture, say, or the desire to communicate or to effect some change; because it has been requested of you or because it might offer some chance for expression of circumstances or of self—have their place, but they are bits of bait laid in the mousetrap. Or the lion trap, if you will—because what a good poem, a real poem, catches is not mouse-sized, it is the size of your own life and death.'

This entry was posted by Ivy on Monday, October 17, 2005 at 9:41 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.