leonardcohenforum.com

Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash. ~ Leonard Cohen


God is the perfect poet. ~ Robert Browning


You will find poetry nowhere unless you bring some of it with you. ~ Joseph Joubert


I don't create poetry, I create myself, for me my poems are a way to me. ~ Edith Sodergran


Poetry is what gets lost in the translation. ~ Robert Frost


The true poet is all the time a visionary and whether with friends or not, as much alone as a man on his death bed. ~ W.B. Yeats


A poem should not mean
But be.
~ Archibald MacLeish, Ars Poetica, 1926


Breathe-in experience,
breathe-out poetry.
~ Muriel Rukeyser


Who can tell the dancer from the dance? ~ W.B. Yeats

To see the Summer Sky
Is Poetry, though never in a Book it lie --
True Poems flee.
~ Emily Dickinson


Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason. ~ Novalis


Poets are soldiers that liberate words from the steadfast possession of definition. ~ Eli Khamarov, The Shadow Zone


We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. Dead Poets' Society


What is a Professor of Poetry? How can poetry be professed? ~ W. H. Auden


A poet's work is 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



Poetry is nobody's business except the poet's, and everybody else can fuck off. ~ Philip Larkin

Very enjoyable. Very true. Thanks for these, Makera. Great emoticon ~ or whatever that fellar caterpillar would be called.

~ Lizzy

Thanks Liz!

Nothing like 'from the horses mouth', eh?

Yeah, I like my bemused bookworm, I found him on a German website of animated gifs and stuff.


~ Makera

Geez ~ Duh ! Bookworm, of course ! The legless caterpillar .

Of course, despite the validity of the quotes, it still doesn't mean that poetry is outside the bounds of scrutiny and assessment. I'm guessing that's what makes for "renowned/great" poets and those that are just emulating Charlie Manson .

Makera and Lizzytysh,

A bemused bookworm? I thought it was Critic2 sitting in Chambers critiquing poetry.

I think you are refering to Law Cambers that old Mikey frequents, perhaps he is instead sitting on a chamber pot?
Anyway i think Mikey was one of those poor plonkers that accussed LC himself of having a lie in his voice. What's he going to do to the poor poets then?
Mikey likes sitting in judjement on his chamber pot. He also talks verbal s**t.
Adieu.

Smokey & Avalon ~

Liz ~ You are quite right, of course it "doesn't mean that poetry is outside the bounds of scrutiny and assessment".
It all depends on who, with what credibility and authority, 'assesses' it.

"Any fool can make a rule, and any fool can mind it." ~ Henry David Thoreau


~ Makera

Actually, I'm still looking for the "bemused" look that the bookworm is supposed to have . I didn't mention it before, but since you mentioned "bemused bookworm" again, Smokey, I will now.

~ Lizzy

Why Liz, don't you think the bookworm looks puzzled or bewildered?

~ Makera

Yeeeaaaahhhhhh, he does. I was looking for the bemused definition [#2] of "lost in thought." Takes us back to that cardinal rule of "Define your terms" .

Well, I did actually use the word 'bemused', not 'muse', 'mused' or 'musing'.
'Bemuse', 'bemused' has never had any definition other than to 'muddle, confuse'; be 'puzzled, bewildered', that I have ever found.

Apart from indulging my alliterative bent, I did think his funny expression defined the term pretty well.

~ Makera

When I get to work [needs to be pretty quick !], I'll give you the dictionary from whence said definition comes. The word is in active verb form ~ bemuse ~ and is to the effect of, "to cause to become lost in thought."

OK ~ here I am at work now. Source : Random House Webster's College Dictionary. Page 122. "be.muse, v.t., -mused, -mus.ing. 1. to bewilder; confuse. 2. to cause to become lost in thought. [1695-1705]" ~ perhaps, my memory is from one of my past lifetimes .

Oh, wow! Thanks Liz

Hey that is really interesting - what is the date of that Webster's edition?
I love discovering the history of word usage/definition. Do those dates mean that that definition only enjoyed a 10 year 'shelf life'?
That 'past life memory' of yours is pretty darn good too!

Here I am with my 1993 edition, 2 volume set of The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (one of which would break my foot if I dropped it!), and it has only one entry for 'bemuse': v.t. M18. .. make utterly muddled, as with drink; stupefy. Chiefly as bemused ppl. a.

Ain't etymology fun!

~ Makera

I didn't think to check that [obvious ] fact, but I will, Makera. It won't be until Dec. 6, though, when I return to work. I do know it's more recent than 1993, however. Even so, my other, also-more-recent dictionary at work didn't have that definition.

Yes, I love etymology. Used to go to the public library and just explore my way through the Oxford English Dictionaries. Wish I'd retained all that I read .

I took it to mean that it only enjoyed a 10-year shelf life . Perhaps, it died when I did .

~ Lizzy