Il n'y a pour les choses et pour les poèmes qu'une seule manière d'être nouveaux, c'est d'être vrais et qu'une seule manière d'être jeunes, c'est d'être éternels.
Positions et propositions (Paris: Gallimard, 1928) p. 16; John O'Connor (trans.) Ways and Crossways (London: Sheed & Ward, 1935) p. 49.
“The number of ways of passing between the traditional two fixed points of man’s life, that is to say, of passing from the self to God, is fixed only by the limitations of space, which is limitless. The eternal philosopher is the eternal pilgrim on that road. It is difficult to take him seriously when he relies on the evidence of the teeth, the throat and the bowels. Yet in the one poem that is unimpeachably divine, the poem of the ascent into heaven, it is possible to say that there can be no faults, since it is precisely the faults of life this poem enables us to leave behind. If the idea of God is the ultimate poetic idea, then the idea of the ascent into heaven is only a little below it.”
“A Collect of Philosophy”
Opus Posthumous (1955)
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Wallace Stevens 278
American poet 1879–1955Related quotes
The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), II : The Starting-Point
Variant translation:
Who says my poems are poems?
My poems are not poems.
After you know my poems are not poems,
Then we can begin to discuss poetry!
"Zen Poetics of Ryokan" in Simply Haiku: A Quarterly Journal of Japanese Short Form Poetry (Summer 2006) http://www.hermitary.com/articles/ryokan_poetics.html
Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf : Zen Poems of Ryokan (1993)
Source: 1840s, Two Ethical-Religious Minor Essays (1849), P. 99
Source: The Seven Steps of the Ladder of Spiritual Love, p. 104
“Probably human cruelty is fixed and eternal. Only styles change.”
Source: Time's Arrow
[2013, Vers l’Essentiel : lettres d’un maître spirituel, Les Sept Flèches, 94, 978-2-97003-258-8]
Spiritual life, Outline