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“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old time is still a flying: And this same flower that smiles today, Tomorrow will be dying.”
“Carpe Diem,” Meeks, the Latin scholar, said. “Seize the day.”
you will learn to savor language and words because no matter what anyone tells you, words and ideas have the power to change the world.
One reads poetry because he is a member of the human race, and the human race is filled with passion! Medicine, law, banking—these are necessary to sustain life. But poetry, romance, love, beauty? These are what we stay alive for!
“‘I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately.’” He skipped through the text. “‘I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life!’”
How do we, like Walt, permit our own true natures to speak? How do we strip ourselves of prejudices, habits, influences? The answer, my dear lads, is that we must constantly endeavor to find a new point of view.”
“And don’t limit poetry to the word. Poetry can be found in music, a photograph, in the way a meal is prepared—anything with the stuff of revelation in it. It can exist in the most everyday things but it must never, never be ordinary. By all means, write about the sky or a girl’s smile, but when you do, let your poetry conjure up salvation day, doomsday, any day. I don’t care, as long as it enlightens us, thrills us and—if it’s inspired—makes us feel a bit immortal.”
We are running from the battle when it’s one that must be fought.” Todd nodded. Everyone read, “And still we sleep.” Todd continued: “We are listening for the calling but never really heeding, Hoping for the future when the future’s only plans. Dreaming of the wisdom that we are dodging daily, Praying for a savior when salvation’s in our hands. “And still we sleep. “And still we sleep.
And still we pray. And still we fear …”
