not much

How much I love a poem made by the least means.

free to be poet

Poets with independent means most enjoy the profession of poet.

something that happens to you

[Alice] Neel liked quoting, with amusement, a strange remark made to her by Malcolm Cowley: “The trouble with you Alice, is you’re not romantic.” In truth, she was capital R Romantic in a very late, modern way: starched by experience. Art was not a refuge for her—she had no refuges, only respites. It was her life lived by other means, in which she enjoyed some moment-to-moment control. Rather than reflect on the preemptory realities of other people, she took them head-on, turning their force around and sending it back out. At times, every brushstroke can feel like a victory, against tall odds, of high humor fringed with deadly seriousness. Lots of celebrated twentieth-century art has seemed dated and tame lately. Not Neel’s, which, beyond being something to look at, is something that happens to you.

—Peter Schjeldahl, “Alice Neel,” Hold, Cold, Heavy, Light: 100 Art Writings, 1998-2018 (Abrams Press, 2019)

carrying case

Thousands of years from Homer or Sappho and we can still carry around poems in our heads.

sad words

All poems are laments for what remains unexpressed by means of language.

somehow fits

Somehow a poem makes human experience conform to the meager means of the word.

required letters

To write this poem, you’re almost going to need a new alphabet.

fame by such means

Early on he planned on becoming a famous poet. Oh well.

only language to go on

The deep appeal of poetry as an art form comes from language (text/speech) being its only means.