One of the most important differences I see between prose and poetry is the music of the language. Pattiann Rogers More Quotes by Pattiann Rogers More Quotes From Pattiann Rogers How can I appreciate light from an aging Pattiann Rogers appreciateshininglight Straight up from this road Pattiann Rogers archerdarkmorning 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 griefuniquesummer I have thought for many years that the audience any creative writer imagines has a great effect on what gets written. Pattiann Rogers imaginecreativeyears 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 juxtapositionmindattention 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 differentmightway 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 richlanguagefeelings 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 shiftinglisteningworld 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 cadencesoundlooks 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 cadencesilencesound 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 fashionsilencemissing 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 answersmaygiving 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 formprocessway 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 kindpurposesound I'm all in favor of poets telling about the process as much as they can. And many do. Pattiann Rogers favorspoetprocess 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 wantwatchesworld Poetry uses language to create a music borne inside human experiences and emotions. Pattiann Rogers emotionlanguageuse 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 statesawarenesssound I think the language of science is highly lyrical and evocative and an important part of our lives in many ways. Pattiann Rogers importantwaythinking 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 specialwritingtrying
