The storm: I close my eyes and, standing in it, try to make it mine.
Jorie GrahamRead
A poem is a private story, after all, no matter how apparently public. The reader is always overhearing a confession.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Poetry expresses personal experiences while allowing readers to feel as if they are privy to intimate emotions.
Jorie Graham's quote emphasizes the dual nature of poetry as both a personal and public form of expression. Although poems are shared with the world and often read by many, they stem from the intimate and private emotions of the poet, creating a unique connection where the reader feels like an invisible witness to a private revelation.
Themes
PoetryPrivatePublicEmotionsConfession
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion about the nature of poetry in a literature class.
More from Jorie Graham
All quotes βI think I am probably in love with silence, that other world. And that I write, in some way, to negotiate seriously with it . Because there is, of course, always the desire, the hope, that they are not two separate worlds, sound and silence, but that they become each other, that only our hearing fails.
Jorie GrahamRead
I think I am probably in love with silence, that other world. And that I write, in some way, to negotiate seriously with it.
Jorie GrahamRead
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