This is how Francis Ponge describes the function of poetry:
It is to nourish the spirit of man by giving him the cosmos to suckle. We have only to lower our standard of dominating nature to raise our standard of participating in it in order to make the reconciliation take place. When man becomes proud to be not just the site where ideas and feelings are produced, but also the crossroad where they divide and mingle, he will be ready to be saved. Hope therefore lies in a poetry through which the world so invades the spirit of man that he becomes almost speechless, and later re-invents a language. Poets should in no way concern themselves with human relationships, but should get to the very bottom. Society, furthermore, takes good care of putting them there, and the love of things keeps them there; they are the ambassadors of the silent world. As such, they stammer, they murmur, they sink into the darkness of logos–-until at last they reach the level of roots, where things and formulas are one.
This is why, whatever one says, poetry is much more important than any other art, any other science. This is also why poetry has nothing in common with what appears in the poetry anthologies of today. True poetry is what does not pretend to be poetry. It is in the dogged drafts of a few maniacs seeking the new encounter.
(Quoted from page 18 of Ecological Intelligence: Rediscovering Ourselves in Nature, by Ian McCallum. Fulcrum Publishing, 2009.)
For a brief biography of Francis Ponge, click here. For images of or relating to Francis Ponge, click here.
For a brief biography of Ian McCallum, click here. For images of or relating to Ian McCallum, click here.
It is to nourish the spirit of man by giving him the cosmos to suckle. We have only to lower our standard of dominating nature to raise our standard of participating in it in order to make the reconciliation take place. When man becomes proud to be not just the site where ideas and feelings are produced, but also the crossroad where they divide and mingle, he will be ready to be saved. Hope therefore lies in a poetry through which the world so invades the spirit of man that he becomes almost speechless, and later re-invents a language. Poets should in no way concern themselves with human relationships, but should get to the very bottom. Society, furthermore, takes good care of putting them there, and the love of things keeps them there; they are the ambassadors of the silent world. As such, they stammer, they murmur, they sink into the darkness of logos–-until at last they reach the level of roots, where things and formulas are one.
This is why, whatever one says, poetry is much more important than any other art, any other science. This is also why poetry has nothing in common with what appears in the poetry anthologies of today. True poetry is what does not pretend to be poetry. It is in the dogged drafts of a few maniacs seeking the new encounter.
(Quoted from page 18 of Ecological Intelligence: Rediscovering Ourselves in Nature, by Ian McCallum. Fulcrum Publishing, 2009.)
For a brief biography of Francis Ponge, click here. For images of or relating to Francis Ponge, click here.
For a brief biography of Ian McCallum, click here. For images of or relating to Ian McCallum, click here.
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