“Poets should speak out against what we see as the assault against our Constitution and the warmongering that's going on. I'm perfectly willing to lay down my life for my Constitution, but I am not willing to take a life for it or any other reason because I think killing people is counterproductive.” PeopleThinkingShouldReasonSpeakWillingPoetConstitutionLaysKillingAssaultSpeaks OutCounterproductive Author:Sam Hamill
“I can remember, I think it was 1967, sitting in the First Unitarian Church in Isla Vista, Santa Barbara, and seeing Phil Levine come out on the little stage. He sat on the edge and said, "You know, sometimes it's hard not to hate my country for the way I feel, at times, but I won't let that happen." And then he read, "They Feed They Lion," this incredibly powerful, incantatory poem that was inspired in part by the burning of Detroit in 1967 and the riots that followed.” ThinkingKnowsWayFeelsFirstsLittlesSaidI CanCountrySometimesHardHappensRememberHateChurchPowerfulSeeingStageSittingInspiredEdgesBurningSatLionsSantaRiotDetroitBarbaraVistasUnitarianSanta BarbaraUnitarian Church Author:Sam Hamill
“Galway Kinnell came out with that wonderful big, breathy, hollow voice of his and read, for the first time in public, "The Bear." That poem impressed me so much that I memorized it. I used it for years when I taught in prisons. It's a powerful extended metaphor for what the writing life is really all about. It's a uniquely powerful poem about self-transformation, and that's what we're asking, really, beyond even our objection to the war. We're asking people to look at themselves and think about what might be possible with a little self-transformation.” PeopleThinkingWritingYearsFirstsLooksLittlesWarSelfBigsMightLife IsUsedVoicePowerfulWonderfulTaughtBearsFirst TimeTransformationAskingPrisonMetaphorImpressedWriting LifeHollowObjectionsSelf Transformation Author:Sam Hamill
“We poets don't tend to be certain a lot. Much of our art is made out of our own uncertainty. And there is a not-knowingness, I think, that leads us back to suffering humanity with a more compassionate vision than most of our politicians have.” ThinkingArtMadeCertainSufferingHumanityVisionPoetPoliticianArt IsUncertaintyCompassionate Author:Sam Hamill
“I got interested in Zen when I was a teenage beatnik on the streets of San Francisco. And it was my interest in Zen, in part, that got me into the Marine Corps, because that was a ticket to Asia. So I spent a couple of years on Okinawa and began reading and thinking about how I wanted to go about conducting my life.” ThinkingYearsWantedReadingInterestStreetsCoupleTicketsTeenageAsiaMarineSan FranciscoMarine CorpsConductingOkinawaBeatnik Author:Sam Hamill
“I think a lot of American poets are swimming-pool Soviets. A lot of them have taken the comfortable, self-protective route too often. I know that I certainly have. That's easy to do.” ThinkingKnowsSelfEasyTakenPoetComfortableSwimmingPoolRoutesProtectiveSwimming Pool Author:Sam Hamill
