33 Comments

The act of writing can be a very mysterious one if we can put aside our egos and listen for the insights

the spirits are sending through us. I like this line very much: 'No - I don't write, I open a breach in the dusk so the dead can send messages through.' Any good poet, with a sense of the transcendent, will relate to that.

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An innermost epiphany.

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Poetry for the ages that lasts longer than the poet who succumbed to life’s tossing stones.

Powerful poem.

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‘Extracción de la piedra de locura’ and the long prose poem of the same name /

as the title suggests, the book contains the most elaborate of Pizarnik’s meditations

on the subject of madness / our favorite poets are special inspectors of madness.

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I am Uruguayan, next to Argentina. Alejandra is very well known here, very loved. Being able to read it in its original language is a treasure. (I don't speak english well, sorry).

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Thank you for sharing that, Jimena. It's very good to know that she is loved.

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What is this job of writing? To steer by

mirror-light in darkness.

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Powerful and tragic.

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Jun 12·edited Jun 12

This is excellent. Some of the language and imagery reminds me of Greek poets like Sachtouris or Gatsos.

I hadn't known about this poet and am glad this site brought this poem to our attention.

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Exquisite as a spider web in sunlight after rain.

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I write with the blind malice of children

pelting a madwoman, like a crow,

with stones. No—I don’t write:

I open a breach in the dusk

so the dead can send

messages through.

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I can taste the blood on this one

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Well said, Nate! Me too.......

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holy shit

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yes oh yes! holy shit!

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ordered her book yesterday

extracting the stones of madness

it felt like

the least i could do

even though

i often do less

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This is striking. For some reason I knew before I read it that she had take own life.

Is it more likely that creative people will do this more than others? Or is that a myth?

I had a creative writing teacher who was a favorite of mine. This was a statement he made one day that made me very sad.

Are creative people simply more likely than others?

I had a difficult time being in that class after he made that statement. I asked if he had made it up He had no statistics to back it up and I really wanted an answer. It was at the end of the of he school year when he approached me and sad a professor in college who told him and he was sorry that it had upset me so much.

What I couldn’t say then that it scared me as I thought of myself as being a creative person and I could never do that.

I still think of myself as being creative and still know that would never be an answer for ME.

I think people in many areas think there is no other answer. I wish they could talk and tell people it is NOT an answer.

Wow that sure went dark …. 😮‍💨

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That overwhelmed me

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Stunning

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Just Wow.

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Outstanding

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