The first question in poetry at that time was simply the question
of honesty, sincerity. The point for me, and I think for Louis [Zukofsky], too,
was the attempt to construct a meaning, to construct a method of thought from
the imagist technique of poetry, from the imagist intensity of vision. If no
one were going to challenge me, I would say “a test of truth.” If I had to back
it up I’d say anyway, “a test of sincerity.” That there is a moment, in actual
time, when you believe something to be true, and you construct a meaning from
those moments of conviction.
—George Oppen, quoted in Robert Hass’s What Light Can Do
(Ecco, 2012)
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