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" Only silence perfects silence. "
A. R. Ammons
Only
Silence
Related Quotes:
" If the greatest god is the stillness all the motions add up to, then we must ineluctably be included. "
A. R. Ammons
Stillness
Up
Then
" I can't tell you where a poem comes from, what it is, or what it is for: nor can any other man. The reason I can't tell you is that the purpose of a poem is to go past telling, to be recognised by burning. "
A. R. Ammons
Reason
You
Man
" Even if you walk exactly the same route each time - as with a sonnet - the events along the route cannot be imagined to be the same from day to day, as the poet's health, sight, his anticipations, moods, fears, thoughts cannot be the same. "
A. R. Ammons
Thoughts
Time
Walk
" In nature there are few sharp lines. "
A. R. Ammons
Few
Lines
Nature
" I must stress here the point that I appreciate clarity, order, meaning, structure, rationality: they are necessary to whatever provisional stability we have, and they can be the agents of gradual and successful change. "
A. R. Ammons
Appreciate
Change
Meaning
" Each poem in becoming generates the laws by which it is generated: extensions of the laws to other poems never completely take. "
A. R. Ammons
Never
Take
Poem
" If a poem is each time new, then it is necessarily an act of discovery, a chance taken, a chance that may lead to fulfillment or disaster. "
A. R. Ammons
Chance
Discovery
Disaster
" That's a wonderful change that's taken place, and so most poetry today is published, if not directly by the person, certainly by the enterprise of the poet himself, working with his friends. "
A. R. Ammons
Change
Place
Poetry
" If we ask a vague question, such as, 'What is poetry?' we expect a vague answer, such as, 'Poetry is the music of words,' or 'Poetry is the linguistic correction of disorder.' "
A. R. Ammons
Question
Words
Expect
" The poet exposes himself to the risk. All that has been said about poetry, all that he has learned about poetry, is only a partial assurance. "
A. R. Ammons
Been
Only
Poet
" Is it not careless to become too local when there are four hundred billion stars in our galaxy alone. "
A. R. Ammons
Alone
Become
Careless
" Anything looked at closely becomes wonderful. "
A. R. Ammons
Wonderful
Closely
Becomes
" There's something to be said in favor of working in isolation in the real world. "
A. R. Ammons
Real
Work
World
" I take the walk to be the externalization of an interior seeking so that the analogy is first of all between the external and the internal. "
A. R. Ammons
Analogy
Walk
Take
" For though we often need to be restored to the small, concrete, limited, and certain, we as often need to be reminded of the large, vague, unlimited, unknown. "
A. R. Ammons
Small
Vague
Unknown
" A poem generated by its own laws may be unrealized and bad in terms of so-called objective principles of taste, judgement, deduction. "
A. R. Ammons
Bad
Taste
Principles
" Poetry leads us to the unstructured sources of our beings, to the unknown, and returns us to our rational, structured selves refreshed. "
A. R. Ammons
Us
Sources
Unknown
" Once every five hundred years or so, a summary statement about poetry comes along that we can't imagine ourselves living without. "
A. R. Ammons
Poetry
Imagine
Living
" I am grateful for - though I can't keep up with - the flood of articles, theses, and textbooks that mean to share insight concerning the nature of poetry. "
A. R. Ammons
Nature
Mean
I Am
" Definition, rationality, and structure are ways of seeing, but they become prisons when they blank out other ways of seeing. "
A. R. Ammons
Out
Prisons
Seeing
" Questions structure and, so, to some extent predetermine answers. "
A. R. Ammons
Structure
Answers
Questions
" Probably all the attention to poetry results in some value, though the attention is more often directed to lesser than to greater values. "
A. R. Ammons
Values
Value
More
" You have your identity when you find out, not what you can keep your mind on, but what you can't keep your mind off. "
A. R. Ammons
Mind
Keep
Find
" Everything is discursive opinion instead of direct experience. "
A. R. Ammons
Direct
Opinion
Experience