"To feel most beautifully alive means to be reading something beautiful, ready always to apprehend in the flow of language the sudden flash of poetry"
- John Andrew Holmes
About this Quote
This quote by John Andrew Holmes speaks with the power of literature and the charm of language. It recommends that checking out something beautiful can make us feel alive and connected to the world around us. Checking out can be a type of escapism, permitting us to check out various worlds and ideas. It can also be a way to get in touch with our own feelings and experiences. The quote recommends that when we read, we can be available to the sudden flashes of poetry that can be found in the circulation of language. Reading can be a way to appreciate the charm of language and to find minutes of joy and inspiration. Reading can be a way to explore our own thoughts and feelings, and to find minutes of beauty and connection in the words we read.
"I think Ginsberg has done more harm to the craft that I honor and live by than anybody else by reducing it to a kind of mean that enables the most dubious practitioners to claim they are poets because they think, If the kind of thing Ginsberg does is poetry, I can do that"
"Nothing truly convincing - which would possess thoroughness, vigor, and skill - has been written against the ancients as yet; especially not against their poetry"
"The dance can reveal everything mysterious that is hidden in music, and it has the additional merit of being human and palpable. Dancing is poetry with arms and legs"
"A book is sent out into the world, and there is no way of fully anticipating the responses it will elicit. Consider the responses called forth by the Bible, Homer, Shakespeare - let alone contemporary poetry or a modern novel"