“Hierarchy, as in the Catholic Church, has to do with power, and vertical attention has to do with longing.” ChurchAttentionCatholicLongingHierarchyCatholic ChurchVertical Author:Robert Bly
“What you feel in Japanese poetry is always entirely longing.” FeelsLongingPoetry Is Author:Robert Bly
“All of Japan once a year will get up on their rooftops, because that's the night that the shepherd boy from one side of the Milky Way gets to meet the weaver girl on the other side of the Milky Way. They all get up on their roofs and watch that night. So they long for 365 days and then on the 365th night, they see the result of that longing.” WayYearsLongNightGirlSidesResultsBoysWatchesLongingGet UpJapanRoofShepherdsMilky WayRooftopsWeavers Author:Robert Bly
“Some people can't go into church any longer to feel this longing, but they still have the longing, so what do they do? Well, one thing you can do is what people do in prison; they turn to poetry.” PeopleFeelsWellsStillsTurnsCan DoChurchOne ThingLongingPrison Author:Robert Bly
“Myth and poetry represent a reservoir of vertical thinking, which we could also call longing and gratitude to ancestors. We need that gratitude desperately.” ThinkingNeedsGratitudeLongingMythAncestorReservoirsVertical Author:Robert Bly
“Vertical attention is not the same as, and doesn't evolve from nor imply, hierarchy. We could say that hierarchy is associated with power, and vertical attention with longing for the Divine Feminine, for the Divine Masculine, for what the Sufis call 'wine.'” AttentionDivineWineLongingEvolveFeminineSufiMasculineHierarchyVerticalDivine Feminine Author:Robert Bly
“We know that the adult in a certain sense has an attitude toward life exactly opposite to the attitude of commercials. Commercials say, 'Your longing for 3.2 beer is very important. Your longing for skin that doesn't have any wrinkles in it, that's very, very, very important.' The adult says, 'No, I've got wrinkles, so what?'” KnowsImportantCertainAttitudeAdultsSkinsOppositesLongingBeerWrinkles Author:Robert Bly
“I felt a longing to compose a radical or root poem that would speak to what has its back turned to me.” SpeakFeltRootsLongingCraftsRadical Author:Robert Bly
