Don McKay Quotes

“There's a place
between desire and memory, some back porch
we can neither wish nor recall”

“Phenomenology is one name for the path back from the object to the thing, the counterbalance to the objectification or 'progress'. Poetry is another.”

“We inflict our rage for immortality on things, marooning them on static islands.”

“The nature poet may (should in fact ), resort to the field guide or library but will keep coming back, figuratively speaking, to the trail - to the grain of experience.”

“Before the wonderful, terrible wrestling with words and music there is the state of mind I'm calling 'poetic attention' … a sort of readiness … a form of knowing.”

“The first indication of one's status as a nature poet is that one does not invoke language right off when talking about poetry.”

“Poets are supremely interested in what language can't do, in order to gesture outside, they use language in a way that flirts with its destruction.”

“As I grew older the poetic surround becomes more important. I realize that the 'poetic attention' was more important to me than poetry was. The 'poetic attention' being a kind of longing without the desire to posess.”