Some Thoughts on Poetry:
I recently subscried to the NPR Book Podcast which I enjoyed enormously while waiting in line at the Whole Foods.
This week’s episode had an interview with the poet Edward Hirsch, who had two fabulous things to say about poetry. One was a quote from Robert Frost about the value of carrying a notebook.
“How many times must something happen to you before it occurs to you?”
The second was the Four Subjects of Poetry as developed by the poet William Matthews.
1. I went out into the woods today, and it made me feel, you know, sort of religious.
2. We’re not getting any younger.
3. It sure is cold and lonely (a) without you, honey, or (b) with you, honey.
4. Sadness seems but the other side of the coin of happiness, and vice versa, and in any case the coin is too soon spent, and on what we know not what.
I love that.