I've spent much of my life being attuned to watching for an image or a phrase that can trigger what might be a poem - could become a poem. Pattiann Rogers More Quotes by Pattiann Rogers More Quotes From Pattiann Rogers How can I appreciate light from an aging Pattiann Rogers appreciate shining light Straight up from this road Pattiann Rogers archer dark morning In I Praise My Destroyer, Diane Ackerman demonstrates once again her love for the specific language that rises from the juncture of self and the natural world, and her skillful use of that language. Whether she turns her attention to the act of eating an apricot 'the color of shame and dawn,' or to 'the omnipotence of light,' or to grief when 'All the greens of summer have blown apart,' her linking of unique images, her energetic wit and whimsy, her compassionate investment in life, always bring new pleasures and perceptions to the reader. Pattiann Rogers grief unique summer I have thought for many years that the audience any creative writer imagines has a great effect on what gets written. Pattiann Rogers imagine creative years What triggers a poem for me is not the same as what triggers an essay. My mind is geared now to looking for, or to watching out for, the image that attracts my attention or the phrase or the strange juxtaposition that strikes me bodily, or an odd question or supposition. Pattiann Rogers juxtaposition mind attention I'm primarily a poet, so I'd have to say in my case I'd investigate the mystery in poetry in a different way than prose might investigate it, in a way that includes the power of the music of language and maybe more imaginatively in poetry, but I don't really know about better or worse. I guess it depends on the writer. Pattiann Rogers different might way I like poetry because poetry - even in free verse - is formal, and it has to be very concise and packed and rich, and I like the feeling of having to do that, having to make the language tight and still free, as if the deepest freedom is created by the restrictions. Pattiann Rogers rich language feelings In poetry I can let the language go, allow an image that seems out of place to enter and see what happens, always listening to the music that's being created, just like the world around us, never predictable, always shifting and intertwining, reflecting and echoing itself. Pattiann Rogers shifting listening world I love the language. I'm just totally fascinated by the sound and the look of words and the kinds of cadences you can create with them, the various kinds of music. Pattiann Rogers cadence sound looks Poetry is so close to music, not just in cadence and sound but in silences. That's why, to me, I can't talk about prose poems. I can talk about poetic prose. Pattiann Rogers cadence silence sound For me, prose is never a poem. Because with prose there are so very few tools to create the music. And one of the most important tools missing is the ability to create silences, as you can in poetry by how you fashion the lines and breaks within the lines and stanzas. Pattiann Rogers fashion silence missing I see my poems as interlinked. No poem gives an answer. It may offer other questions, it may instigate other questions that then become poems. Pattiann Rogers answers may giving The poem is a process, a way for me to discover questions, to ask them clearly or to discover the results of certain suppositions. Suppositions are a form of questioning. Pattiann Rogers form process way It sounds old-fashioned to say, but we have some kind of purpose for being here, not poets or writers, but all of us humans. Pattiann Rogers kind purpose sound I'm all in favor of poets telling about the process as much as they can. And many do. Pattiann Rogers favors poet process If I'm excited by something bodily, and curious about it, I generally want to delve into it and explore it with poetry. That's the way I ordinarily watch the world around me. Pattiann Rogers want watches world Poetry uses language to create a music borne inside human experiences and emotions. Pattiann Rogers emotion language use When the music created by the sounds and ordering of the words matches the thrust of the meanings of the words, then a radiant state of awareness can occur. Pattiann Rogers states awareness sound I think the language of science is highly lyrical and evocative and an important part of our lives in many ways. Pattiann Rogers important way thinking From the beginning I felt that I didn't ever want to leave the impression that the process of writing a poem is totally mysterious. I couldn't explain everything that went on in the creation of a poem, but I could try to explain as much as I knew. I thought readers deserved that. I didn't want to set myself apart as being someone special. Pattiann Rogers special writing trying
