A Path to Paths

idolize, idealize

it's done in imagining it, poetry, can suffer

we are not saved by appeal to the plural

there is still a sense of an organism at play, an ecology at work

I hope never to idealize poetry — it has suffered enough from that. Poetry is not a healing lotion, an emotional massage, a kind of linguistic aromatherapy. Neither is it a blueprint, nor an instruction manual, nor a billboard. There is no universal Poetry anyway, only poetries and poetics, and the streaming, intertwining histories to which they belong.

Poetry and Commitment by Adrienne Rich (Norton, 2007) in a smart little handbook edition with a purple cover and palm-sized dimensions (51 p. ; 16 cm.).

And so for day 1042
20.10.2009