Poetry is ordinary language raised to the Nth power. Paul Engle More Quotes by Paul Engle More Quotes From Paul Engle I grew up in the prolonged survival of the great age of the horse, with harness and saddle and sleigh bells and horse pictures, not as antiques but the facts of our lives. Paul Engle horse survival age The years rolled their brutal course down the hill of time. Still poor, my clothes still smelling of the horse barn, still writing those doubtful poems where too much emotion clashed with too many words. Paul Engle horse writing years I had been warned about Jews by my gentile friends - they did terrible things with knives to boys. Paul Engle knives terrible boys Human life is too difficult for people. Paul Engle human-life life-is people To eat in the same room where food is cooked - that is the way to thank the Lord for His abundance. Paul Engle abundance way rooms When your first marriage goes into tragedy, you become very battle-scarred... I even thought of suicide. Luckily, I had known some happy marriages. Paul Engle battle tragedy suicide A barn with cattle and horses is the place to begin Christmas; after all, that's where the original event happened, and that same smell was the first air that the Christ Child breathed. Paul Engle horse air children Contrary to slanderous Eastern opinion, much of Iowa is not flat, but rolling hills country with a lot of timber, a handsome and imaginative landscape, crowded with constant small changes of scene and full of little creeks winding with pools where shiners, crappies and catfish hover. Paul Engle small-changes iowa country Every Christmas should begin with the sound of bells, and when I was a child mine always did. But they were sleigh bells, not church bells, for we lived in a part of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where there were no churches. Paul Engle church-bells iowa children Touch was important. The evening of the Third of July we would go around the neighborhood and look at the fireworks others had bought, taking them out of the brown paper sack and handling them cautiously as if they were precious stones. There was envy when we saw sacks with more in them than we had. Paul Engle precious-stones july envy But maybe it's up the hills or under the leaves or in a ditch somewhere. Maybe it's never found. But what you find, whatever you find, is only part of the missing, and writing is the way the poet finds out what it is he found. Paul Engle college missing writing Corncobs are the greatest fire-making tinder. Paul Engle tinder fire Verse is not written, it is bled; Out of the poet's abstract head. Words drip the poem on the page; Out of his grief, delight and rage. Paul Engle delight pages grief Wisdom is knowing when you can't be wise. Paul Engle The way to praise a poet is to write a poem. Paul Engle write poet praise way But maybe it's up in the hills under the leaves or in a ditch somewhere. Maybe it's never found. But what you find, whatever you find, is always only part of the missing, and writing is the way the poet finds out what it is he found. Paul Engle never you writing way
