QUOTATIONS
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Jane Hirshfield was born in 1953 in New York City. She is an ordained lay Zen Buddhist and a well-regarded translator; she is also one of my favorite contemporary poets. I have heard Hirshfield described as the poet of “presence.” Her work is often described as a bridge between the Western lyrical tradition and the meditative depth… Read more
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Poetry is a matter of life, not just a matter of language. -Lucille Clifton Read more
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At first blush, the marriage between Ovid, that most Latin of poets, and Ted Hughes would seem as unlikely a match as any you could imagine. Not in ability, of course, but in language and temperament. Hughes as a poet has always seemed to me one of the most earthy, physical, and Anglo-Saxon of all… Read more
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On Sunday, I posted and reviewed a poem by the Imagist Amy Lowell. Today, I am going to be “reviewing” a poem by my other favorite Imagist poet, Hilda Doolittle, who published under her initials, H.D. H.D. (1886–1961) was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to a wealthy family and attended Bryn Mawr. A true Bohemian, she… Read more
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Poet Amy Lowell (1874–1925) was born in Brookline, Massachusetts. She is one of the poets most associated with the Imagist movement, along with H.D., Richard Aldington, and Ezra Pound. Imagism was a reactionary movement in early 20th-century Anglo-American poetry that favored precision, economy of language, and the use of sharp, concrete images. It stood in… Read more
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Though Marianne Moore (1887–1972) was born in Missouri, she became the quintessential New York City Modernist poet. The city and its “inhabitants” live in her poems, whether they be her beloved Bronx Bombers or a specific tree in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Over Christmas, Sue and I returned to NYC with my Minnesota daughter and son-in-law… Read more
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In poetry, you must love the words, the ideas and the images and rhythms with all your capacity to love anything at all. -Wallace Stevens Read more
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The best way to learn about poetry is to read poetry, and to read poets talking about it. With that in mind, over the next month I will be highlighting a number of books that feature poets talking about poetry, beginning with the book Poetry and Ambition: Essays 1982–88 by Donald Hall. The greatest challenge in reviewing… Read more
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The month of January here at ClimbingSky this year is dedicated to Poetry. It is something I read every day, wrestle with most days, and has been a constant in my life since my teen years. For those counting, that is five decades now and counting. I am not sure how many books of poetry,… Read more
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The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it. -Dylan Thomas Read more
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