If you had told me, though, when I was twenty-four that I would write about Skokie, Illinois, where I grew up, I would have said, ‘You’re out of your mind. Why would I have Skokie in a poem?’ But you become resigned. Your job is to write about the life you actually have. Edward Hirsch
About This Quote

Poets are people who live in the present. Poetry is a form of expression that focuses on the here and now, not on the past or future. Poets are people who have to be open to the world around them. They have to be sensitive to what is happening in their lives at all times.

Poetry, therefore, is about being present in the moment. Poetry allows us to enter into the minds of others so that we can experience their way of thinking, feel what they are feeling, and see what they see. We can also learn from others.

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  1. Works of art imitate and provoke other works of art, the process is the source of art itself.

  2. I did not know the work of mourning Is like carrying a bag of cement Up a mountain at night The mountaintop is not in sight Because there is no mountaintop Poor Sisyphus grief I did not know I would struggle Through a ragged underbrush...

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