ARS POETICA #100: I BELIEVE
Poetry, I tell my students,
is idiosyncratic. Poetry
is where we are ourselves,
(though Sterling Brown said
"Every 'I' is a dramatic 'I'")
digging in the clam flats
for the shell that snaps,
emptying the proverbial pocketbook.
Poetry is what you find
in the dirt in the corner,
overhear on the bus, God
in the details, the only way
to get from here to there.
Poetry (and now my voice is rising)
is not all love, love, love
and I'm sorry the dog died.
Poetry (here I hear myself loudest)
is the human voice,
and are we not of interest to each other?
— Elizabeth Alexander
from American Sublime © Graywolf Press
ADVICE TO YOUNG POETS
Never pretend
to be a unicorn
by sticking a plunger on your head
— Martín Espada
from The Republic of Poetry
© W.W. Norton & Company, 2008
