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Quote by Gregory Orr

“Another way of saying "put it in the Book" would be that each poem we write pops up in the city of poetry, where anyone can visit it. Just as we visit the poems written before us. Go to Dickinson's house, or Li Po's or whomever we think has something to say to us that might help or be beautiful.”

Quote by Gregory Orr

Author

Gregory Orr is an American poet born in 1947. His poetry is known for its profound emotion and exquisite technique, covering a wide range of themes including nature, history, religion, and human experience. more

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“In Eden I "saw" that Adam or Eve probably spoke each word FOR THE FIRST TIME and that seemed wild and seemed to me that that might have brought them to some essence of language. Once I "saw" the city, I knew it was real. once I saw that a poem was a house, i knew it was real and could go back to it or else write a flurry of poems around it, both worked.”

Writing Firsts Real Might House Language Cities Saws First Time Essence Spokes Adam Eden

Author:Gregory Orr

“Language is a theme in the whole book, no? I mean it ends with the title poem about words are all we have. I guess midrash makes sense. How does it change in the course of the sequence? Well, God is into No and into Stasis/Nouns. Adam and Eve, in order to be in this world (and get this world going) must choose verbs. Which is to gain sex but also to choose death and all else that goes with change. To choose becoming over being.”

World Wells Mean Doe Book Ends Whole Order Courses Language Sex This World Becoming Gains Make Sense Titles Theme Adam Sequence Verbs Adam And Eve Nouns Stasis

Author:Gregory Orr

“Speaking of people I had to exclude: Hank Williams. which is to say, songs are part of lyric poetry in my book, my thinking. In fact they are the urgent element of poetry in our time, they carry the most emotion for the most people in our culture. everyone LOVES poetry, because we all love (one form or another) of rock and roll (be it folk to emo to rap). It's all rock and roll and all lyric poetry.”

People Thinking Book Facts Form Song Culture Emotion Rocks Elements Folks Rap Our Time Poetry Is Rock And Roll One Love Urgent Love Poetry Emo Lyric Poetry Hank Williams

Author:Gregory Orr

“No one can threaten poetry. It's always been there, always will be. Humans need it to live: it has sustaining powers. How could we (anyone) get through adolescence without some form of song? Song is only a version of lyric poetry that is carried more by melody than by internal coherence and unity. but lyric and song - they are the same.”

Needs Humans Form Song Unity Versions Internals Melody Adolescence Sustaining Coherence Lyric Poetry

Author:Gregory Orr

“I can't actually explain why my lines got shorter, but they did. Just as I can't explain why my early poems were 'all image' and my current ones are relatively abstract. The sense of the line changed with the theme, somehow my ear (or brain or heart/mind) fell in love with a short line and very very simple words.”

Mind Heart I Can Lines Simple Brain Changed Ears Currents Abstract Theme Simple Words

Author:Gregory Orr

“D.H. Lawrence says that myths are "inexhaustible" because they are symbols of heart mysteries. That is, they can't be exhausted - they somehow have embodied some central human mystery (love, loss, being a body in time, who knows which or what?) and thus can be retold infinitely and still be rich. That's part of your saying: it's old, but it's also new. Or: there's nothing "new" in the human heart, but it still matters lots.”

Knows Humans Heart Stills Matter Body Loss Rich Mystery Myth Symbols Exhausted Human Heart Nothing New Love Loss

Author:Gregory Orr

“I want language to help us live in a world of wonder/terror/change. I want it to be about "becoming" rather than "being." I think that being and nouns are part of our hopeless dream that time will stop and we will not die. but it's not that way. So, why not celebrate verbs and the beloved's metamorphosis into other people or creatures or places - the same spirit but moving through things, not static.”

People Thinking World Way Want Helping Dream Moving Spirit Dies Language Wonder Becoming Creatures Terror Celebrate Beloved Hopeless Why Not Static Verbs Metamorphosis Nouns

Author:Gregory Orr

“Rhyme as an echo not a closing off of sound. Love it. I don't know where the rhymes came from. Or the puns like "no/know" and so on. Just a way my mind start moving toward what seemed urgent to it. I'd like to claim complete rational intent for it all, but it wasn't that way. if you asked me about rhyme thirty years ago, I'd have said: not me, never. And now I done it.”

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Author:Gregory Orr

“"Similar but not the same" - that's like the return of the beloved for me. And metamorphosis: the spirit of the beloved moving through things, not lingering long in any one thing or place, no matter how we might wish it.”

Long Matter Might Moving Spirit Wish One Thing Return Beloved Metamorphosis Lingering

Author:Gregory Orr

“I am committed now to one thing: lyric sequences. I want the intensity of lyric, but the scope and arc of narrative. so, I think I'll just write sequences for the foreseeable (the Beloved sequence doesn't have a 'plot' so I can just keep adding poems to it, it's like a giant bag I can just put beloved lyrics into - I think there are about 300 of them i've published by now).”

Thinking Want Writing I Can One Thing Committed Narrative Beloved Giants Bags Plot Intensity Scope Sequence Arcs

Author:Gregory Orr