If there were no poetry on any day in the world, poetry would be invented that day. For there would be an intolerable hunger. Muriel Rukeyser More Quotes by Muriel Rukeyser More Quotes From Muriel Rukeyser I think there is choice possible to us at any moment, as long as we live. But there is no sacrifice. There is a choice, and the rest falls away. Second choice does not exist. Beware of those who talk about sacrifice. Muriel Rukeyser The universe is made of stories, not atoms. Muriel Rukeyser It is the single image, as used in a photograph or a painting - or the frame of a film - to which words have been added to enlarge the context. The method is not the same as that by which most paintings are named. It is closer in its performance to what dialogue does to a movie, to what the caption does to a good poster. Muriel Rukeyser words performance good painting The actual world, not some fantastic structure that has nothing to do with reality, must provide the material for modern poetry. Muriel Rukeyser nothing poetry reality world One characteristic of modern poetry is that arrangement of parts which strikes many people as being violent or obscure. Muriel Rukeyser being modern poetry people In our period, they say there is free speech. They say there is no penalty for poets, There is no penalty for writing poems. They say this. This is the penalty. Muriel Rukeyser they-say free speech writing Our poems will have failed if our readers are not brought by them beyond the poems. Muriel Rukeyser failed beyond them will A work of art is one through which the consciousness of the artist is able to give its emotions to anyone who is prepared to receive them. There is no such thing as bad art. Muriel Rukeyser emotions bad work art I learned that I had been brought up as a protected, blindfolded daughter. Muriel Rukeyser learned been up daughter The town of Gauley Bridge stands as a pattern for all those places where people are linked even in the middle of their suffering, where people fight against an evil condition so that other people need not go through the same fight. Muriel Rukeyser fight suffering evil people I hope for quick, fluent copy and memorable pictures. The words would not 'describe' the pictures; the pictures would not 'illustrate' the words. Together, they would carry a stamp and tell a story. Muriel Rukeyser pictures words hope together I should like to use another word: 'audience' or 'reader' or 'listener' seems inadequate. I suggest the old word 'witness,' which includes the act of seeing and knowing by personal experience, as well as the act of giving evidence. Muriel Rukeyser personal like experience giving Editors have grown timid... a brave advance is almost inevitably followed by quick back-tracking, generally by dilution and debasement of the original intention. Muriel Rukeyser quick original intention brave The advertising men made it clear that there were two ways of looking at ideas in a war against fascism. Those of us who were working on the project believed ideas were to be fought for; the advertising men believed they were to be sold. The audience, those at home in wartime, were not 'citizens' or 'people.' They were 'customers.' Muriel Rukeyser home men war people Local images have one kind of reality. 'U.S. 1' will, I hope, have that kind and another, too. Poetry can extend the document. Muriel Rukeyser will poetry hope reality
