A poet’s work…to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world and stop it from going to sleep. ~ Salman Rushdie
Mysteries & the Deep Blue Sea
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Liberate Your Art
Sunday Quote (2012 Week 7)
This entry was posted in Photo, Poetry, Writing and tagged NaBloPoMO, poetics, poetry, PostADay, Project 365, Quotation, Salman Rushdie, Sunday Quote. Bookmark the permalink.
The picture is magical. Congratulations. I found the quote interesting, but I might take issue with it as a sweeping statement that needs some discussion.
I think that Rushdie is correct that these things are part of a poet’s work, but I do not think that it is exclusively the work of a poet, or that all poetry must do all of these things at one time. That’s a tall order. I think that of all he lists, the actions to “shape the world and stop it from going to sleep” is probably most often what poetry does, in the sense that a poem can present a different perspective on something ordinary. In doing so, it says “Hey, pay attention [wake up!], look at this in this way”. Once you look at something in a new way, you have given it a different shape. If the poem is successful, it has formed that shape in a certain way, though I wouldn’t consider it completely unsuccessful if I were to think “no, that’s not it” and consider a different shape. Either way, it has provoked a consideration.
I agree with the wake up part of a poet’s work. You express it well as ‘provoking a consideration’ of the ordinary.
Actually, just pressing the ‘Like’ button is kind of lazy. It’s glass, then? Thought so [feels smug]. Lovely. And the quote.
There isn’t a like button for comments.
Yes, it is glass, reflected on a glass table, lit by winter morning light through an eastern-facing window.
It is from one of my favorite bottle stoppers, picked up in an overpriced Venice shop years ago. Since I broke it last month, I haven’t been able to throw it away yet, though I didn’t know why I had kept it. Here is what the entire piece, which isn’t very big looks like:
http://fourdeeroak.wordpress.com/2012/02/12/sunday-quote-11/bottle-stopper/
This is fantastic. I love the colors, shape and texture. Well done.
Thanks, Terry. I was working on some abstracts with glass vases and paperweights. This was an afterthought (it’s the glass top to a wine bottle stopper), but it turned out much better than the vases and paperweights.