It's absolutely crucial to maintain my life as a poet.
Edward HirschRead
As soon as something happens to us in America, everyone begins talking about healing. But before you heal, you have to mourn.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Healing requires acknowledging and processing one's grief before moving on.
Edward Hirsch emphasizes the importance of grief in the healing process, particularly in the context of collective trauma experienced in America. The quote suggests that while society may rush to seek resolution and recovery, true healing cannot occur without first allowing oneself to mourn and reflect on the pain experienced.
Themes
GriefHealingMourningLossTrauma
In practice
Example use cases
During a memorial service, this quote can be shared to remind attendees of the importance of grieving.
More from Edward Hirsch
All quotes βThe commitment to working at poetry is important because a poet is a maker, and a poem is a made thing. We have to honor our feelings by working to transform them into something meaningful and lasting.
Edward HirschRead
As far as I'm concerned, freedom is the most important thing to creativity. You should feel free to write in whatever way, whatever language, feels comfortable to you.
Edward HirschRead
The idea that a poem was a made thing stayed with me, and I decided then that I wanted to be an artist, not just a diarist. So I put myself through a kind of apprenticeship in writing poetry, and I understood even then that my practice as a poet was deeply related to my reading.
Edward HirschRead
And every year there is a brief, startling moment _x000D_ When we pause in the middle of a long walk home and _x000D_ Suddenly feel something invisible and weightless _x000D_ Touching our shoulders, sweeping down from the air: _x000D_ It is the autumn wind pressing against our bodies; _x000D_ It is the changing light of fall falling on us.
Edward HirschRead
When poetry separates from song, then the words have to carry all the rhythm themselves; they have to do all the work. They can't rely on the singing voice.
Edward HirschRead
Similar quotes
Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself; and where they are, they should be changed. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marijuana in private for personal use... Therefore, I support legislation amending Federal law to eliminate all Federal criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce [28g] of marijuana.
Jimmy CarterRead
Great changes start with individuals; the basis of world peace is inner peace in the hearts of individuals.
Dalai LamaRead
We've become a nation of indoor cats, he'd said. A nation of doubters, worriers, overthinkers. Thank God these weren't the kind of Americans who settled this country. They were a different breed! They crossed the country in wagons with wooden wheels! People croaked along the way, and they barely stopped. Back then, you buried your dead and kept moving.
Dave EggersRead
We shall strike. We shall organize boycotts. We shall demonstrate and have political campaigns. We shall pursue the revolution we have proposed. We are sons and daughters of the farm workers' revolution, a revolution of the poor seeking bread and justice.
Cesar ChavezRead
I'm so tired of waiting, aren't you, for the world to become good and beautiful and kind?
Langston HughesRead
After the destruction of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the shutdown of much of New York City by Sandy in 2012, and now the devastation wrought on Texas by Harvey, the U.S. can and should do better.
Joseph StiglitzRead