Daily Inspiration Quote by James Broughton

A poem, for James Broughton, isn’t a polished argument or a clever container for meaning; it’s a self-starting performance. “Has to sing out of itself” is a small manifesto against the dutiful, over-engineered poem that reads like homework. He’s insisting on an internal ignition: rhythm and tone aren’t decorative, they’re the engine. The line quietly demotes “message” and upgrades music. If the poem has to be pushed, explained, or escorted into significance, it’s already failed his test.

The phrasing also gives away the filmmaker in him. Broughton thinks in terms of sound, movement, and lift: “lilt” is kinetic, bodily, almost choreographic. It suggests a voice you can feel in your ribs, not just parse with your eyes. The “magic” isn’t mysticism so much as the particular spell good art casts when form and feeling lock together and you stop noticing the craft as craft. You don’t admire the mechanism; you’re caught by it.

Context matters: Broughton comes out of mid-century American avant-garde and West Coast counterculture, worlds suspicious of straight-laced literary piety and hungry for art that’s sensuous, communal, alive. This is a defense of pleasure with standards. Not anything goes, but something must happen: the poem must carry you. The subtext is a dare to poets and audiences alike - trust your ear, and demand enchantment without apology.