<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=389960" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Poet as a Feeler of Pain</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">What makes a poet?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Many have tried to guess.<br>Is it a voice<br>like a conduit,<br>a plainspokenness to grief,<br>the hairs of the head<br>dancing on end,<br>the blood swarming<br>with the voices<br>of all those who have died,<br>will die,<br>& will also be born?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Is it a catch<br>in the throat<br>that awakens the eyes,<br>is it in the eyes themselves<br>or is it something<br>in the heart?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I think it is pain-<br>an openness to pain,<br>so that the least leaf<br>cuts the hand<br>& the smallest tear<br>cuts the cheek<br>like jagged crystal,</div><div style="margin:10px 0">so that the world<br>is a sick infant<br>& the poet its mother,<br>praying, crooning, promising<br>to be good<br>if only the cure<br>takes.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">There is, of course,<br>no cure.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Poetry does not cure<br>the poet<br>& the poet<br>does not cure the world.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Usually he catches<br>the world's diseases<br>& dies<br>even before his time.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But against all odds<br>& all indifference,<br>another one is born.<br>The world must have<br>someone to feel its pain<br>& speak of it.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The poet is that mouth.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Erica+Jong">Erica Jong</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=389960" data-title="The Poet as a Feeler of Pain de Erica Jong" data-description="What makes a poet? Many have tried to guess. Is it a voice like a conduit, a plainspokenness to grief, the hairs of the head dancing on end, the blood swarming with the voices of all those who have died, will die, & will also be born? Is it a ca..."></div> </div> </div>

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