Poetry is an intimate act. It's about bringing forth something that's inside you--whether it is a memory, a philosophical idea, a deep love for another person or for the world, or an apprehension of the spiritual. It's about making something, in language, which can be transmitted to others--not as information, or polemic, but as irreducible art.
Dorianne LauxI donโt worry anymore about writing. There are times that I go through dry periods. I never go through a block. Iโm always writing, but there are times where Iโm just not on my game, and Iโll use that time to read some new poets, go see some art, walk down to the river and just stare at it, or have a conversation with my sister, or whateverโdo whatever it is that I do in my life, hoping that Iโll get filled up enough. And something will happen, some juggling will happen and boom.
Dorianne LauxPoetry is an intimate act. It's about bringing forth something that's inside you--whether it is a memory, a philosophical idea, a deep love for another person or for the world, or an apprehension of the spiritual. It's about making something, in language, which can be transmitted to others--not as information, or polemic, but as irreducible art.
Dorianne LauxIt's difficult to talk about [W.S.] Merwin's poems, as it's hard to talk about a feeling or a smell. It is what it is, but so much so that it overwhelms both sense and the senses. I aspire to something about his work, that imbues his poems, though I'm not sure I could say what that is. A purity, maybe, the kind of purity that comes from being beaten, like steel.
Dorianne Laux