37 Quotes by Pattiann Rogers

My object when writing prose is to write as clearly as possible. I think I know what I’m saying in prose, and I want others to understand it and to be able to restate it.

I like poetry because poetry – even in free verse – is formal, and it has to be very concise and packed and rich, and I like the feeling of having to do that, having to make the language tight and still free, as if the deepest freedom is created by the restrictions.

Often when I write poetry I don’t quite know what I’m saying myself. I mean, I can’t restate the poem. The meaning of the poem is the poem.

I do love writing prose interspersed with the poetry of other people. Their rhythms break into my prose and create a connection.

I’d rather call prose poems something else, for clarity – something like “poetic prose,” prose that contains a quality of poetry, but not poems.

I don’t write or think too much about the word “salvation.” I might; I probably should. We are such needy creatures, needing to be saved, to feel we are saved or might be, however we define ourselves, however we define that word.

People sometimes think that defining a term is pedantic and useless, but terms need to be defined if they’re going to be discussed, even if the terms are only defined for a single conversation. Those involved in the conversation need to know how the terms are being used.

Poetry uses language to create a music borne inside human experiences and emotions.

Poetry is very playful with language. I think all poetry, at its heart, is playful. It’s doing unusual and playful things with the language, stirring it up. And prose is not doing that. Primarily it’s not attempting to do that.