“What happens at the beginning of your poem has to—because it’s a poem—be transformed by the end of your poem. So if the triggering moment for the beginning of your poem is a known political moment, I am fine with that, that’s great. But as I’m reading, I expect it to change because that was just the trigger…”

On how poems might be structured around a political theme in “JERICHO BROWN in conversation with MICHAEL DUMANIS” http://www.benningtonreview.org/jericho-brown-interview in Bennington Review (2018 Oct 27)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "What happens at the beginning of your poem has to—because it’s a poem—be transformed by the end of your poem. So if the…" by Jericho Brown?
Jericho Brown photo
Jericho Brown 4
American writer 1976

Related quotes

Adrienne Rich photo

“The moment of change is the only poem.”

Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) American poet, essayist and feminist
Robert Frost photo
Mark Strand photo
Walt Whitman photo

“Your very flesh shall be a great poem…”

Variant: And your very flesh shall be a great poem.
Source: Leaves of Grass

“I revise short poems sometimes for years, whereas, since there is no getting lost in the long poem, I engage whatever comes up in the moment and link it with its moment.”

A.R. Ammons (1926–2001) American poet

Paris Review interview (1996)
Context: In the long poem, if there is a single governing image at the center, then anything can fit around it, meanwhile allowing for a lot of fragmentation and discontinuity on the periphery. Short poems, for me, are coherences, single instances on the periphery of a nonspecified center. I revise short poems sometimes for years, whereas, since there is no getting lost in the long poem, I engage whatever comes up in the moment and link it with its moment.

Jane Hirshfield photo

“One breath taken completely; one poem, fully written, fully read - in such a moment, anything can happen.”

Jane Hirshfield (1953) Poet

Source: Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry

Sheri-D Wilson photo

“Relationships are good
for at least two poems—
One at the beginning
and one at the end.”

Sheri-D Wilson (1958) Canadian Spoken Word Poet

"On Being a Poet"
Swerve (1993)

Virginia Woolf photo

“And the poem, I think, is only your voice speaking.”

Source: The Waves

Spike Milligan photo

“I thought I'd begin by reading a poem by Shakespeare, but then I thought, why should I? He never reads any of mine.”

Spike Milligan (1918–2002) British-Irish comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor

Spike Milligan with Jeremy Taylor Live at Cambridge University. Recorded at Cambridge University on December 2, 1973, this was previously released as a double LP, and later re-issued as a 2 CD set. Milligan used variations on the Shakespear line throughout his later life.

Related topics