Mark Strand

I am not concerned with truth, nor with conventional notions of what is beautiful. ↗

— Mark Strand

#beautiful #concerned #conventional #i #i am

I believe that all poetry is formal in that it exists within limits, limits that are either inherited by tradition or limits that language itself imposes. ↗

— Mark Strand

#either #exists #formal #i #i believe

I certainly can't speak for all cultures or all societies, but it's clear that in America, poetry serves a very marginal purpose. It's not part of the cultural mainstream. ↗

— Mark Strand

#certainly #clear #cultural #cultures #i

For some of us, the less said about the way we do things the better. ↗

— Mark Strand

#better #less #said #some #things

I think the best American poetry is the poetry that utilizes the resources of poetry rather than exploits the defects or triumphs of the poet's personality. ↗

— Mark Strand

#best #defects #exploits #i #i think

I would say that American poetry has always been a poetry of personal testimony. ↗

— Mark Strand

#american #been #i #personal #poetry

It hardly seems worthwhile to point out the shortsightedness of those practitioners who would have us believe that the form of the poem is merely its shape. ↗

— Mark Strand

#form #hardly #merely #out #poem

It's very hard to write humor. ↗

— Mark Strand

#humor #very #write

Nothing is the destiny of everyone, it is our commonness made dumb. ↗

— Mark Strand

#dumb #everyone #made #nothing #our

Pain is filtered in a poem so that it becomes finally, in the end, pleasure. ↗

— Mark Strand

#becomes #end #filtered #finally #in the end