CHET ON POETRY (Chet Baker)
Poetry embodies in its essence the complex interaction of being.
Mike Kauschke • The Poetic Art of Living in a Time Between Worlds - Emerge
The morning before he died in the final year of his seventies, he drafted a poem containing these lines:
You can’t tell when strange things with meaning... See more
will happen. I’m [still] here writing it down
just the way it was. “You don’t have to
prove anything,” my mother said. “Just be ready
for what God sends.” I listened and put my hand
out in the sun again.
Maria Popova • Yes: William Stafford’s Poetic Calibration of Perspective
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
E. E. Cummings • [i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] by E. E.… | Poetry Magazine
There’s a poem by Jacque Prévert that sums up this basic confusion quite well. He wrote: I am what I am I was made like this What more do you want What do you want of me
Steve Hagen • Buddhism Is Not What You Think: Finding Freedom Beyond Beliefs
As poets value the sounds of words above their meanings, and images above arguments, I am trying to get thinking people to be aware of the actual vibrations of life as they would listen to music.
Alan Watts • In My Own Way: An Autobiography
Poetry is an essential part of society—but only as itself and not as a vehicle for something else.