Pattiann Rogers Quotes

Often I’m struck by something that I read; then I go and research it a little more, especially if I begin a poem, and I find out that I need to know more. Then I usually get intrigued and excited about whatever it is I’m writing about.

Poetry is so close to music, not just in cadence and sound but in silences. That’s why, to me, I can’t talk about prose poems. I can talk about poetic prose.

One of the most important differences I see between prose and poetry is the music of the language.

I’m all in favor of poets telling about the process as much as they can. And many do.

I think my prose – mine and that of others – sometimes slips into a cadence or rhythm that can replicate or come close to the music in a wonderful poem, and then it returns to the sound of prose.

I do love writing prose interspersed with the poetry of other people. Their rhythms break into my prose and create a connection.

We’re all vulnerable in our various ways, and what we are physically, our bodies, is what has developed with the goal of keeping that life safe and intact, at least until we have procreated. That’s what our bodies are, the protection of life.

Straight up from this road
Away from the fitted particles of frost
Coating the hull of each chick pea,
And the stiff archer bug making its way
In the morning dark, toe hair by toe hair,
Up the stem of the trillim,
Straight up through the sky above this road right now,
The galaxies of the Cygnus A cluster
Are colliding with each other in a massive swarm
Of interpenetrating and exploding catastrophes.
I try to remember that.

People sometimes think that defining a term is pedantic and useless, but terms need to be defined if they’re going to be discussed, even if the terms are only defined for a single conversation. Those involved in the conversation need to know how the terms are being used.

Often when I write poetry I don’t quite know what I’m saying myself. I mean, I can’t restate the poem. The meaning of the poem is the poem.

For me, prose is never a poem. Because with prose there are so very few tools to create the music. And one of the most important tools missing is the ability to create silences, as you can in poetry by how you fashion the lines and breaks within the lines and stanzas.

To my mind, most prose poems are more prose than poetry. They don’t possess most of the qualities of a poem.