Quotables Poetry Blogathon Part 1 – Caroline Crew: Poets on Poetry
And we’re off! Welcome to the start of the Quotables Poetry Blogathon, a celebration of all things poetical and quotable, to mark National Poetry Day on Thursday 7th October here in the UK.
We’re setting the ball rolling today with a couple of terrific guest posts to get in you in the mood for a whole day of poetry fun tomorrow. First up is Atlanta-based poet and blogger Caroline Crew from Flotsam with a great selection of poets talking poetry…
Five Favourite Quotes: Poets on Poetry
Poets are often the worst people to talk about poetry. They’ll mumble on for a bit about truth and beauty and some other big concepts before conceding, with a shrug, that they write because they can’t not. Still, there are some gems of advice out there for poets, so I’ll share the ones that have stayed lodged in my head:
- ‘imaginary gardens with real toads in them’ is how Marianne Moore famously analogised poems in her ‘Poetry’. Aside from being an astounding image (and what is it with poets and toads… I’m looking at you Vicki Feaver, Norman MacCaig), this phrase really encapsulates the difference in attitude I’ve found since moving across the Atlantic. American ways of making poems have opened me up to planting imaginary gardens, and I couldn’t be more excited about it.
- ‘…restraint so passionate / implies possession’ (Louise Glück, ‘Palais des Arts’). Anyone who knows me or has delved into my blog a bit will be aware of the deep pit I continually dig, full of admiration for Louise Glück. Not to get all mushy, but Glück just gets me. We’re the same kind of crazy. Her almost skeletal poetic is often far from my own, but the idea that the fewer words speak louder are essential to a writer. Sometimes you have to trust the reader to fill the negative space.
- Michael Longley (From Don’t Ask Me What I Mean: Poets In Their Own Words): ‘So I would insist that poetry is a normal human activity, its proper concern all of the things that happen to people’. Named by Seamus Heaney as a ‘custodian of griefs and wonders’, Longley is a poet brave enough to shoulder a sense of duty, and this statement is an important talisman for a poet or reader to remember: poetry exists in the hearts of everyone.
- ‘There are bones inside my body I’ve never seen’ (Frances Leviston, ‘Moon’). Leviston is one of my favourite poets, and it’s a crime she isn’t fabulously famous. Beautiful in its self-containment, she reminds us that although poetry can serve a community purpose, poets can wield a scalpel on themselves, and cut down to the unseen places inside ourselves, as well as in the surrounding landscape.
- This is more of a paraphrase than a verbatim quote, but it is the single most important thing a poet has ever told me: ‘poetry is dangerous’. The wisdom-giver was Don Paterson, a poet of immense lyricism. Essentially, poets will push the boundaries of experience in order to have things to write about. Paterson himself addresses this in his seven-part elegy ‘Phantom’ for Michael Donaghy: standing over the coffin, the speaker thinks ‘If I can’t get a poem out of this…’. A chilling piece of advice for any creative person, but worth remembering that art doesn’t always require sacrifice.
Don’t forget to add your favourite poetry quotes to Quotables or tweet them our way @QuotablesHQ, and if you’ve been writing about National Poetry Day online and would like a mention in our bumper blog round-up, just drop us a line.
