“Poetry photographs parts of life and humanity that can’t be captured visually, at least in a literal sense. It dissects the hopelessness of being alive and makes it seem to develop meaning momentarily, even if it never actually does.”
in 2014, Going Down Swinging
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Robbie Coburn 2
Australian writer 1994Related quotes
“For myth is alive at once and in all its parts, and dies before it can be dissected.”
"Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" (1936), p. 14
Context: The significance of a myth is not easily to be pinned on paper by analytical reasoning. It is at its best when it is presented by a poet who feels rather than makes explicit what his theme portends; who presents it incarnate in the world of history and geography, as our poet has done. Its defender is thus at a disadvantage: unless he is careful, and speaks in parables, he will kill what he is studying by vivisection, and he will be left with a formal or mechanical allegory, and what is more, probably with one that will not work. For myth is alive at once and in all its parts, and dies before it can be dissected.
Source: The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence
"America, Seen Through Photographs, Darkly", p. 31
On Photography (1977)
“The photograph itself doesn't interest me. I want only to capture a minute part of reality.”
“Being photographed does not make a man a good writer. It doesn't make a man anything.”
Source: Tough Shit: Life Advice from a Fat, Lazy Slob Who Did Good
Source: Time Tunnel (1964), Chapter 1 (p. 8).