POETRY by Mariane Moore

Poetry
by Marianne Moore

I, too, dislike it: there are things that are important beyond all this fiddle. Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one discovers in it after all, a place for the genuine. Hands that can grasp, eyes that can dilate, hair that can rise if it must, these things are important not because a
high-sounding interpretation can be put upon them but because they are useful. When they become so derivative as to become unintelligible, the same thing may be said for all of us, that we do not admire what we cannot understand: the bat holding on upside down or in quest of something to
eat, elephants pushing, a wild horse taking a roll, a tireless wolf under a tree, the immovable critic twitching his skin like a horse that feels a flea, the base- ball fan, the statistician-- nor is it valid to discriminate against "business documents and
school-books"; all these phenomena are important. One must make a distinction however: when dragged into prominence by half poets, the result is not poetry, nor till the poets among us can be "literalists of the imagination"--above insolence and triviality and can present
for inspection, "imaginary gardens with real toads in them," shall we have it. In the meantime, if you demand on the one hand, the raw material of poetry in all its rawness and that which is on the other hand genuine, you are interested in poetry.

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[AllErikaEclectica]

Thanks for sharing this. Marianne Moore fascinates, and I enjoy your reading of her work. I'd love to include this in a poetry playlist I have on my page for all lovers of good poems. I enjoy your channel and your poetry, too. How great it must have been to see Moore at Berkeley.

[Idlinfarm]

@AllErikaEclectica Thank you.

[medicinesocks]

he told me she wore a tricorn hat.

[Idlinfarm]

I stand amazed.

[ClarityinWonderland]

Thank you. I enjoyed the conceit (meaning, twist) and feel these words are true.

[yotefwd]

I have read some of her work, some I had to really think about, but to hear you read it well it sinks in a little better. I write poetry also am I to understand in this read that When she said half poets that they are the ones that write in a certian form or no form at all. I guess I am a from the gut writer. though now I tend to study my writes alot more. Anyhow thanks for the read. You are on my favorites Darlen. Gary aka Moses Lee

[ilurvezoe]

THANK YOU!

[megansspark]

Thanks so much, I would have been late to watch those kittens arrive too, smile

Love the line "imaginary gardens with real toads in them" -- that is super

[janeczka]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing! :)

[medicinesocks]

mother's day, 1983, i went awol, ran a way from home leaving my bad, deadbeat, soon to be ex-husband alone with our two small babies, and i spent the whole day with artist ray johnson, who gallantly took me under his wing after inviting me to perform with him in one of his "nothing" performances, atop a parking garage in masapequa park, long island. he spoke with great love that day of the poet marianne moore, his particular friend and confidante. i think he was still grieving the loss of her.