“Poetry has its uses for despair. It can carve a shape in which a pain can seem to be; it can give one’s loss a form and dimension so that it might be loss and not simply a hopeless haunting. It can do these things for one person, or it can do them for an entire culture. But poetry is for psychological, spiritual, or emotional pain. For physical pain it is, like everything but drugs, useless.” GivingPersonsUseSeemsMightPainSpiritualFormCultureCan DoLossEmotionalDrugShapesDespairPsychologicalUselessDimensionsPoetry IsHopelessHauntingEmotional PainPhysical Pain Author:Christian Wiman
“At some point you have to believe that the inadequacies of the words you use will be transcended by the faith with which you use them. You have to believe that poetry has some reach into reality itself, or you have to go silent.” BelieveUseRealitySilentInadequacy Book:Ambition and Survival: Becoming a Poet Source: Ambition and Survival: Becoming a Poet
“It is easy enough to write and talk about God while remaining comfortable within the contemporary intellectual climate. Even people who would call themselves unbelievers often use the word gesturally, as a ready-made synonym for mystery. But if nature abhors a vacuum, Christ abhors a vagueness. If God is love, Christ is love for this one person, this one place, this one time-bound and time-ravaged self.” PeopleIfsWritingPersonsMadeSelfEnoughUseEasyChristMysteryReadyComfortableIntellectualClimateBoundsContemporaryOne TimeVacuumsGod Is LoveUnbelieversSynonymVagueness Author:Christian Wiman
