You know, people speak in poetry all the time. They just don't realize it.
Interpretation
People often express themselves poetically, even if they are unaware of it.
This quote by Sherman Alexie suggests that everyday language and expressions hold a poetic quality that often goes unnoticed. It highlights the beauty of communication and the artistry inherent in the way we convey our thoughts and feelings, implying that poetry is not just confined to written verse but exists in our daily conversations and interactions.
In practice
This quote can be used in a writing workshop to encourage participants to explore the poetic elements in their own language.
Gordie, the white boy genius, gave me this book by a Russian dude named Tolstoy, who wrote, 'Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.' Well, I hate to argue with a Russian genius, but Tolstoy didn't know Indians, and he didn't know that all Indian families are unhappy for the same exact reasons: the frikkin' booze.
My wife was the first romantic partner who understood both American and native parts of me - not so much the positive stuff, but the damage.
I draw because words are too unpredictable. I draw because words are too limited. If you speak and write in English, or Spanish, or Chinese, or any other language, then only a certain percentage of human beings will get your meaning. But when you draw a picture everybody can understand it. If I draw a cartoon of a flower, then every man, woman, and child in the world can look at it and say, "That's a flower.
We all have to find our own ways to say good-bye.
I write books for teenagers because I vividly remember what it felt like to be a teen facing everyday and epic dangers. I don't write to protect them. It's far too late for that. I write to give them weapons-in the form of words and ideas-that will help them fight their monsters. I write in blood because I remember what it felt like to bleed.
A lot of people have no idea that right now Y.A. (young adult). is the Garden of Eden of literature.
I just had a crazy, wild imagination all my life, and science fiction is the greatest outlet for me.
I'm never tired of going to the studio. I enjoy recording and documenting everything and trying new things.
So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say. But to sacrifice a hair of the head of your vision, a shade of its colour, in deference to some Headmaster with a silver pot in his hand or to some professor with a measuring-rod up his sleeve, is the most abject treachery, and the sacrifice of wealth and chastity which used to be said to be the greatest of human disasters, a mere flea-bite in comparison.
Joao Gilberto on guitar could read a newspaper and sound good.
To say of a picture, as is often said in its praise, that it shows great and earnest labour, is to say that it is incomplete and unfit for view.
Poetry is music, and nothing but music. Words with musical emphasis.
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