NathanBrown

(1) Every beautiful poem... should contain at least one line that is painful, or pinches your better judgment. (2) Every painful poem... should contain at least one line that makes you smile. (3) Every tragic poem... should... at least once... make you laugh. #poem #poetry #NathanBrown #laureate

I'm long enough out of the loop now, that I no longer feel much of a need to argue with academics over the nature of high versus low art. But, as I read quite a bit of Wallace Stevens and Elizabeth Bishop these last few weeks, I was struck this morning by a considerably clarifying thought: I'm not interested in being "impressed" by poetry. Especially poetry that the academy feels I should be impressed by. No... I want to be touched... I want to be healed... I want to be inspired... I want to come away with what Tom Boyd, a belovéd professor of philosophy at OU, once called to my face (as he tightly clenched my hand in his): that "Mmmm Thing!" I want it like a boot to my gut. I want it to "bu