- a handful of quotes -
First, Wallace Stevens said that it must be abstract.
Also, that it must change and give pleasure.
Decades later, towards the end of the century,
someone wrote in the margins, anonymously,
that it must, in addition, entertain.
Somewhat earlier than Stevens, Robert Johnson
suggested that we had to move. Janis Joplin,
quipping on the motif, agreed that, yes,
we had to move – “You’d better move over,” she said.
Recently, Utada Hikaru has warned us
that she’s moving on, with or without us.
They were all talking about poetry, of course.
While Man may once have been the measure of all things,
poetry has always been the mover.
And it’s the Mover (Auden said this) that has moved.
- for Gwyneth Monks and
Francisco Castillo, with
perpetual thanks -
“Let us leave rebellions to the choleric
who enjoy them: to serve as a paradigm
now of what a plausible Future might be
is what we’re here for.”
- W. H. Auden