WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 17th:
HER PRIVATE MYTHOLOGY: SOPHIA DE MELLO BREYNER
November 6 1919 – July 2 2004
Sophia de Mello Breyner was an award-winning Portuguese poet who began publishing her work in 1944. In 1964 she received the grand prize in Poetry of the Portuguese Society of Writers. Breyner is a distinguished story teller with works such as Exemplary Tales and many children’s books like the The Sea Girl. I was introduced to her work after purchasing a new book from the book story titled The vintage Book of Contemporary World Poetry containing many other writers from all over the world. Her first introduction touched me and I new I had to share it with all of you, even if you are not a poet I think all artists can relate to her quote below.
Poetry “requires unflagging intransigence. It demands that I extract a seamless texture from my life, apart from what shatters, exhausts, pollutes and adulterates. It requires that I live as alert as an antenna, that I be always alive, that I never sleep or forget. It demands unflagging, concentrated, intransigent obstinacy. Because poetry is my understanding with the world, my intimacy with things, my participation in what is real, my engagement with voices and images. this is why a poem speaks not of ideal life but of actual life: the angle of a window; the reverberation of streets, cities, rooms; shadows along a wall.”
McClatchy, J.D. The Vintage Book of Contemporary World Poetry. New York: Vintage Books, 1996.
Links:
PAST VERSE FEATURES
Wednesday September 18th 2008 – Invictus
Wednesday September 23rd 2008 – Ode
Wednesday October 1st 2008 – Damaged
Wednesday October 8th 2008 – I Am A City
Wednesday October 15th 2008 – Sonnet LXXI
Wednesday October 23rd 2008 – The Colossus
Wednesday October 29, 2008 – The Invitation
Wednesday, November 5, 2008 – The Confidence Course
Wednesday, November 12, 2008 – We Are The Ones
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 – The Artist’s Life, Creativity
Thursday, November 27, 2008 – Don’t Stop For Anything
Wednesday, December 17, 2008 – Sophia De Mello Breyner
beautiful!
(comment on: Verse – Invictus)
Touching
(comment on: Verse – Invictus)
Wow! Powerful.
(comment on: Verse – Invictus)
that’s really quite beautiful. I must say, no matter how physical or emotional the pain is, it inspires us to write even the most inspirational poems. good quote!
(comment on – Ode)
and in our museums everything will look dust covered, even though its not, but that’s just the nature of things in museums.
If this isn’t a tribute to life, then I don’t know what is. Its beautiful, thank you Gene.