“I was scuttling along in my usual furtive way, suspecting no ill, when a large invisible thumb descended from the sky and pressed down on the top of my head. A poem formed.”
On Writing Poetry (1995)
Context: The day I became a poet was a sunny day of no particular ominousness. I was walking across the football field, not because I was sports-minded or had plans to smoke a cigarette behind the field house — the only other reason for going there — but because this was my normal way home from school. I was scuttling along in my usual furtive way, suspecting no ill, when a large invisible thumb descended from the sky and pressed down on the top of my head. A poem formed. It was quite a gloomy poem: the poems of the young usually are. It was a gift, this poem — a gift from an anonymous donor, and, as such, both exciting and sinister at the same time. I suspect this is the way all poets begin writing poetry, only they don't want to admit it, so they make up more rational explanations. But this is the true explanation, and I defy anyone to disprove it.
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Margaret Atwood 348
Canadian writer 1939Related quotes

As quoted in Tampa Bay Magazine (January/February 2008), p. 205

“I'm flat on the floor, with my head down low, where the sky can't rain on me anymore.”
From Flat on the Floor from the album, Carnival Ride (2007). [Misattributed: performer not credited as writer.]

“… my head in the rainclouds, my heart in the sky.”
Source: The Goldfinch

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)

“I rolled my eyes so far into the top of my head I almost fell over backward.”
Source: Three to Get Deadly

Quoted in Matt Seaton, "I feel used," The Guardian, 16 October 2003

“Far be it from me to ever let my common sense get in the way of my stupidity. I say we press on.”
Source: Infinity