Poetry's medium is not merely light as air, it is air: vital and deep as ordinary breath. Robert Pinsky More Quotes by Robert Pinsky More Quotes From Robert Pinsky A sentence is like a tune. A memorable sentence gives its emotion a melodic shape. You want to hear it again, say it—in a way, to hum it to yourself. You desire, if only in the sound studio of your imagination, to repeat the physical experience of that sentence. That craving, emotional and intellectual but beginning in the body with a certain gesture of sound, is near the heart of poetry. Robert Pinsky emotional memorable heart Deciding to remember, and what to remember, is how we decide who we are. Robert Pinsky who-we-are identity memories The medium of poetry is not words, the medium of poetry is not lines-it is the motion of air inside the human body, coming out through the chest and the voice box and through the mouth to shape sounds that have meaning. It's bodily. Robert Pinsky voice air sound I have always been thinking about the sounds and shades and aromas of words - fitting them together or disrupting their customary march - more or less every second of my life, waking and sleeping. Robert Pinsky together sleep thinking When I had no roof I made audacity my roof. Robert Pinsky audacity roof made If what you want to do is make good art, decide whats good and try to imitate it. Robert Pinsky want trying art In jazz, as in poetry, there is always that play between what’s regular and what’s wild. That has always appealed to me. Robert Pinsky jazz play Sometimes the ideas that mean the most to you will feel true long before you can quite formulate them or justify them. Robert Pinsky long mean ideas The heart grows brutal feeding on fantasies. Robert Pinsky feeding fantasy heart Whatever makes a child want to glue macaroni on a paper plate and paint the assemblage and see it on the refrigerator - that has always been strong in me. Robert Pinsky strong paper children Poetry’s medium is the individual chest and throat and mouth of whoever undertakes to say the poem. Robert Pinsky mediums individual mouths An artist needs not so much an audience, as to feel a need to answer, a promise to respond... a good feeling about his art. Robert Pinsky feelings promise art My poems - like my family life, my life with friends, my teaching - these things express who I am. I don't feel any extra responsibilities or relishes or necessary evils in them. They are part of who I am, with all of those customary desires and doubts, purposes and confusions that come along with being a particular person. Robert Pinsky who-i-am responsibility teaching There is something cathartic about having absolute loss articulated. Robert Pinsky cathartic health loss An underestimated element in poetry, that reading aloud makes clear, is the pause. I mean especially the force of a pause or a couple of pauses close together, contrasted with a longer unit of grammar. Robert Pinsky couple reading mean In the particular presence of memorable language we can find a reminder of our ability to know and retain knowledge itself: the brightness wherein all things come to see. Robert Pinsky brightness language memorable Poetic language is singularly appropriate for recounting the life of the king who is traditionally accepted as the author of the poetic psalms, some of which are included in the narrative. Robert Pinsky narrative language kings To talk about the reality of life here and the work that you do here at the university. Robert Pinsky reality-of-life university reality Art will not solve your problems. It will not enable you to live merrily. Robert Pinsky solve problem art The medium of poetry is a human body: the column of air inside the chest, shaped into signifying sounds in the larynx and the mouth. In this sense, poetry is just as physical or bodily an art as dancing. Robert Pinsky dancing air art
