I can't tell you where a poem comes from, what it is, or what it is for: nor can any other man. The reason I can't tell you is that the purpose of a poem is to go past telling, to be recognised by burning.
Interpretation
A poem's essence transcends explanation, aiming to evoke deep recognition rather than clarity.
A. R. Ammons emphasizes that poetry cannot be confined to rigid definitions or purposes. Instead, the true impact of poetry lies in its ability to elicit visceral emotions and experiences that cannot be verbalized, suggesting that the recognition of a poem's worth comes from an internal, almost primal understanding, rather than intellectual analysis.
In practice
During a literary discussion, one might use this quote to illustrate the profound nature of poetry.
Even if you walk exactly the same route each time - as with a sonnet - the events along the route cannot be imagined to be the same from day to day, as the poet's health, sight, his anticipations, moods, fears, thoughts cannot be the same.
If the greatest god is the stillness all the motions add up to, then we must ineluctably be included.
For though we often need to be restored to the small, concrete, limited, and certain, we as often need to be reminded of the large, vague, unlimited, unknown
Definition, rationality, and structure are ways of seeing, but they become prisons when they blank out other ways of seeing.
I hate outlines. I have a broad sense of where the story is going; I know the end, I know the end of the principal characters, and I know the major turning points and events from the books, the climaxes for each book, but I don't necessarily know each twist and turn along the way. That's something I discover in the course of writing and that's what makes writing enjoyable. I think if I outlined comprehensively and stuck to the outline the actual writing would be boring.
Where there is no style, there is in effect no point of view. There is, essentially, no anger, no conviction, no self. Style is opinion, hung washing, the caliber of a bullet, teething beads.
Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend.
We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth.
The violinist is that peculiarly human phenomenon distilled to a rare potency---half tiger,half poet.
I am very depressed and deeply disgusted with painting. It is really a continual torture.
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