“It is always a disappointment to turn from forthright consideration of some subject - whether from the Left or the Right, a poet or a plumber - to the Beltway version, in which the only aspects of the issue that matter are the effects it will have on the fortunes of the two parties and the various men in power.” MenTwoMatterTurnsLeftPartyIssuesSubjectsEffectsPoetAspectFortuneDisappointmentVariousVersionsConsiderationPlumber Author:Thomas Frank
“When a poet writes a poem, meaning arises - because the poet is not alone; he has created something. When a dancer dances, meaning arises. When a mother gives birth to a child, meaning arises. Left alone, cut off from everything else, isolated like an island, you are meaningless. Joined together you are meaningful. The bigger the whole, the bigger is the meaning.” GivingWritingChildrenWholeMotivationalTogetherMotherLeftCuttingPoetBirthBiggerMeaningfulAriseIslandsDancerMeaninglessIsolatedNot AloneLeft Alone Author:Rajneesh
“A Poet, Naturalist, and Historian, Who left scarcely any style of writing untouched, And touched nothing that he did not adorn.” WritingLeftStylePoetTouchedHistorianNaturalist Author:Samuel Johnson
“When modernist poetry, or what not so long ago passed for modernist poetry, can reach the stage where the following piece by Mr. Ezra Pound is seriously offered as a poem, there is some justification for the plain reader and orthodox critic who shrinks from anything that may be labelled 'modernist' either in terms of condemnation or approbation. Better he thinks, that ten authentic poets should be left for posterity to discover than one charlatan should be allowed to steal into the Temple of Fame.” ThinkingShouldMayLongLeftTermPiecesStagePoetReaderFameTenCriticsFollowingStealingTemplesPoundsOrthodoxJustificationLong AgoShrinksPosterityCondemnationCharlatans Author:Laura Riding
“I was strong and tough enough and charming. / How else is a fat Jew lesbian poet gonna get by? / Listening to the radio, staying home, staying alone, like / they mean us to. / Who means you to be left out? / Who don't?” MeanEnoughHomeLeftStrongPoetListeningToughRadioJewFatsStayingBigotryOutsidersCharmingLeft Out Author:Elana Dykewomon
“The only refuge left to us was the poet's ivory tower, which we climbed, ever higher, to isolate ourselves from the mob.” LeftPoetHigherRefugeTowersIvoryIvory Tower Author:Gerard De Nerval
“I was a tiny bug. Now a mountain. I was left behind. Now honored at the head. You healed my wounded hunger and anger, and made me a poet who sings about joy.” MadeSpiritualJoyLeftGrowthBehindsPoetMountainHungerTinySpiritual GrowthWoundedHonoredBugsLeft BehindHealed Author:Rumi
“There is nothing “still” in the remarkably visceral poems of Alexander Long's third collection, Still Life, and nothing is at rest in these restless and edgy poems. Conversational and kinetic, these poems chart the traces left by the shifting overlays of the templates of literature, rock-and-roll, and contemporary culture. As each poem in Still Life attempts to fix a focus upon a scene or subject, the protean natures under view draw the poet into the eddies and complexities of reflection. This is a powerful and moving collection of poems.” LongStillsMovingCultureLiteratureLeftViewsPowerfulFocusSubjectsRocksPoetSceneDrawsReflectionThirdsContemporaryComplexityCollectionsRock And RollRestlessShiftingEdgyVisceralStill Life Author:David St. John
“My mother actually left American in 1929 to be part of an alternative community of bohemians around her then father-in-law who was a well-known Greek poet. This group of people were living in this semi-Luddite reality and weaving their own clothes - proto-hippies in a way- -but around an artistic vision.” PeopleWayWellsRealityLawMotherFatherLeftCommunityKnownVisionGroupsPoetClothesArtisticAlternativesGreekWell KnownHippieIn-lawsWeavingArtistic VisionFather In Law Author:Anne Waldman