I wanted to write the kind of poetry that people read and remembered, that they lived by - the kinds of lines that I carried with me from moment to moment on a given day without even having chosen to.
Tracy K. SmithRead
We all need poetry. The moments in our lives that are characterized by language that has to do with necessity or the market, or just, you know, things that take us away from the big questions that we have, those are the things that I think urge us to think about what a poem can offer.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Poetry is essential for contemplating life's deeper questions beyond everyday necessities.
In this quote, Tracy K. Smith emphasizes the importance of poetry in helping us navigate the complexities of life. She suggests that our daily concerns, often driven by practicality and market demands, can distract us from exploring profound questions about existence and meaning. Poetry serves as a refuge, encouraging us to reflect on our deeper emotions and thoughts, allowing us to engage with life's big questions in a more thoughtful way.
Themes
PoetryLifeQuestionsArtLanguage
In practice
Example use cases
In a literary discussion about the significance of art in society.
More from Tracy K. Smith
All quotes →I love the sense of looking at the sad, paltry, and yet very familiar spectacle that we must make from moment to moment in our lives, and in our frenzy, as something that's as out there as alien life.
Tracy K. SmithRead
Losing my father made me want to find out if I could come up with a version of God or the afterlife that I could feel like was acceptable now that both my parents are in it.
Tracy K. SmithRead
Prose is something that is persistent in staying in one place long enough to not only zero in on the dramatic effect of something that might have happened, or something that might have been seen, but also in watching how it played out and thinking about the cause and the effect.
Tracy K. SmithRead
A question is a pursuit, an invitation to envision and explore a series of possibilities, to struggle and empathize and doubt and believe. The question moves, whereas our sense of what an answer is can often be static, a stopping point.
Tracy K. SmithRead
I had to say to myself, 'I haven't written enough about blackness, yet it's part of my consciousness and my lived experience.' I had to get over that anxiety of 'I haven't done this before.'
Tracy K. SmithRead
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