20 Poets on the Meaning of Poetry

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We’ve been thinking about poet Meena Alexander’s incredible address to the Yale Political Union, in which she refers to Shelley’s 1821 essay, A Defence of Poetry. The English poet’s work famously stated, “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.” Alexander concludes: “The poem is an invention that exists in spite of history… In a time of violence, the task of poetry is in some way to reconcile us to our world and to allow us a measure of tenderness and grace with which to exist… Poetry’s task is to reconcile us to the world — not to accept it at face value or to assent to things that are wrong, but to reconcile one in a larger sense, to return us in love, the province of the imagination, to the scope of our mortal lives.”… Lês fierder

Beppe

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“Omie!” hear ik roppen. En noch es ropt se; “Omie!“

Ik bin yn de supermarkt. Ik sjoch om my hinne. Der stiet in lyts buorfamke nei my te swaaien. Ik wiuw wêrom en gean fierder.

Dy buorfamkes hawwe twa beppes. De iene beppe wennet yn Mildaam, Omie, en de beppe yn Âldehaske is Beppe.

Lês fierder by tiden hawwe tidenLês fierder

Literatuerkrityk: reuzen de bek bine

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Tsjêbbe Hettinga sliept ek. Noch mar krekt. En postúm, nota bene yn it ramt fan de promoasje om de Gysbert Japicxpriis 2013 hinne, wurdt it fenomenale dichtwurk fan dizze reus al yn de boeien slein troch de Liliputters. Mei de skriuwer út ’e wei en syn oeuvre kompleet doarden Josse de Haan en Klaas van der Hoek it nammentlik wol oan en meitsje no mar ris regaad fan de dichtbondel Equinox.

Lês fierder by Abe de VriesLês fierder