Poetry is not easy. Or should I say, real poetry is not easy.
Robert PinskyRead
New Jersey is the most poetic state: close enough to New York to be urban and cosmopolitan, far enough to be desirous and unsure; densely populated, but full of farms and woods, with the most deer of any state.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the unique and contrasting characteristics of New Jersey, highlighting its blend of urban and natural beauty.
In this quote, Robert Pinsky celebrates New Jersey's dual identity as both an urban and rural state. He points out that its proximity to New York City gives it a cosmopolitan flair, yet it retains an allure of quietness and uncertainty found in its rural landscapes, filled with farms and woods. This contrast evokes a sense of poetic beauty, revealing the complexities of living in a state that encompasses both vibrant city life and serene nature.
In practice
During a presentation about the diverse culture of New Jersey.
Poetry is not easy. Or should I say, real poetry is not easy.
The medium of poetry is a human body: the column of air inside the chest, shaped into signifying sounds in the larynx and the mouth. In this sense, poetry is just as physical or bodily an art as dancing.
Poetry is the most bodily of the arts.
Sometimes the ideas that mean the most to you will feel true long before you can quite formulate them or justify them.
For a lot of people, well-meaning teaching has made poetry seem arcane, difficult, a kind of brown-knotting medicine that might be good for you but doesn't taste so good. So I tried to make a collection of poetry that would be fun. And that would bring out poetry as an art, rather than the challenge to say smart things.
'Write' is almost the wrong verb for what I do. I think 'compose' is more accurate because you're trying to make the sounds in your mind and in your voice. So I compose while I'm driving or in the shower.
Ladies bathed before noon, after their three o'clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.
There are other singers of ranchera music who sing very beautifully, but you can tell from the way they sing that they never lived on a ranch. They never knew what it was to milk a cow, to birth a calf, to shoe a horse. I've lived all that.
A beautiful dress may look beautiful on a hanger, but that means nothing. It must be seen on the shoulders, with the movement of the arms, the legs, and the waist.
Literature is like any other trade; you will never sell anything unless you go to the right shop.
I like the construction of sentences and the juxtaposition of words-not just how they sound or what they mean, but even what they look like.
Nothing in the world can be compared to the human face. It is a land one can never tire of exploring. There is no greater experience in a studio than to witness the expression of a sensitive face under the mysterious power of inspiration. To see it animated from inside, and turning into poetry.
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