“To be a poet in a destitute time means: to attend, singing, to the trace of the fugitive gods. This is why the poet in the time of the world's night utters the holy.”

— Martin Heidegger

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Martin Heidegger 69

German philosopher 1889–1976

Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist

"Poetry in War and Peace," Partisan Review (Winter 1945) [p. 129]
Kipling, Auden & Co: Essays and Reviews 1935-1964 (1980)

“Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that's what the poet does.”

Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997) American poet

“The poet is a god, or, the young poet is a god. The old poet is a tramp.”

Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American poet

Opus Posthumous (1955), Adagia

“A poet should leave traces of his passage, not proofs. Traces alone engender dreams.”

René Char (1907–1988) 20th-century French poet

Un poète doit laisser des traces de son passage, non des preuves. Seules les traces font rêver.
As quoted in The French-American Review (1976) by Texas Christian University, p. 132
Variant translation: A poet must leave traces of his passage, not proofs. Only traces bring about dreams.
As quoted in Popular Dissent, Human Agency, and Global Politics (2000) by Roland Bleiker, p. 50