So, it's a continual process of trial and error and then I find things and I throw it out and start again, but I keep writing it over again. Edward Hirsch More Quotes by Edward Hirsch More Quotes From Edward Hirsch I didn't sit down then and start writing poems, but it was in the back of my mind. Edward Hirsch writing-poems mind writing In high school I was leafing through an anthology that our teachers had given up and I found a poem, I go, "That's so strange. This poem looks so much like my grandfather's poem." Edward Hirsch grandfather teacher school I think that as long as you have other poets before you and that you can learn from them, then it's always open ended for you. Edward Hirsch poet long thinking The idea of how to read a poem is based on the idea that poetry needs you as a reader. That the experience of poetry, the meaning in poetry is a kind of circuit that takes place between a poet, a poem and a reader and that meaning doesn't exist or in here in poems alone. Edward Hirsch kind ideas needs I think in terms of educating a group of readers, MFA programs are very good. I just think the model of MFA programs in which a young poet goes through the program, publishes a series of books, gets teaching jobs, that's a bit at risk. Edward Hirsch teaching jobs book I think the culture can absorb so many people writing poetry and trying to earn their living in poetry. Edward Hirsch writing people thinking First of all I think that poetry is very noble and I always have with me the sense of the nobility of poetry. Edward Hirsch noble firsts thinking And when you are entering into poetry, whatever stage you're at, you are participating in something with a very long and noble tradition. Edward Hirsch entering noble long I would keep in mind to a young poet that you are entering into something that is very important, that has always been important in terms of human concerns. Edward Hirsch entering important mind I don't think you can read poetry while you're watching television very well. Edward Hirsch wells television thinking Gertrude Stein said, "I write for myself and strangers." I would say I write for myself, strangers and the great dead. Edward Hirsch gertrude stranger writing It's not important - it's not necessary that you read everything. What is necessary is that you care about things that you read and that you find something that really matters to you and you try and make something like that. Edward Hirsch care important trying There's always some place to go. You don't need workshops, you don't need friends necessarily, you can be befriended by literature itself. Edward Hirsch places-to-go literature needs I think fiction goes to poetry for the intensity of its use of language. Edward Hirsch use fiction thinking As a reader you have a task to do, you have something to do. You bring your experience to it. It's not all inherit in the poem. Edward Hirsch tasks reader The great post-Holocaust poet, Paul Celan, said that a poem is a message in a bottle sent out in the not always greatly hopeful belief that somewhere and some time it would wash up on land on heartland perhaps. Edward Hirsch hopeful holocaust land Fiction writers learn about the development of metaphor, the use of rhythm, the way that language is compacted in order to express the feelings of - express their own feelings and the feelings of their characters. Edward Hirsch feelings character order We're trying to make something that lasts in language and there's no question that many fiction writers began as poets and it's hard for me to think of any good fiction writers who don't also read poetry. Edward Hirsch trying fiction thinking I think the deepest thing is that many fiction writers tell stories but are not elegant writers. But, we're not writing journalism when we're making literature. Edward Hirsch writing fiction thinking I think it's true that that's something that poetry can go to school on fiction. I think poetry can go to fiction to learn. Edward Hirsch fiction school thinking
