Enough to Live Inside

An example from painting applicable to poetry.

There’s a legend about a Chinese painter who was asked by the emperor to paint a landscape so pristine that the emperor can enter it. He didn’t do a good job, so the emperor was preparing to assassinate him. But because it was his painting, legend goes, he stepped inside and vanished, saving himself. I always loved that little allegory as an artist. Even when it is not enough for others, if it is enough for you, you can live inside it.

Ocean Vong interviewed by Zoë Hitzig at Prac Crit
http://www.praccrit.com/poems/daily-bread/

And so for day 2117
29.09.2012