William Williams
William Williams
assertion broken environment failing lifting means poem social thus total toward
The poem, to me (until I go broke) is an attempt, an experiment, a failing experiment, toward assertion with broken means but an assertion, always, of a new and total culture, the lifting of an environment to expression. Thus it is social, the poem is a social instrument.
disease stop
I think all writing is a disease. You can't stop it.
lies lies-and-lying manner matters secret
It is not what you say that matters but the manner in which you say it; there lies the secret of the ages.
cute-love edge love sweet-love
It is at the edge of a petal that love waits.
blind lives
We are blind and live our blind lives out in blindness.
branches hang leaves tale winter
Some leaves hang late, some fallbefore the first frost--so goesthe tale of winter branches and old bones.
branches fall goes hang leaves tale winter
Some leaves hang late, some fall before the first frost--so goes the tale of winter branches and old bones.
ground perform teach
I will teach you my townspeoplehow to perform a funeralfor you have it over a troopof artists--unless one should scour the world--you have the ground sense necessary.
genius happy shall
Who shall say I am notthe happy genius of my household?
genius happy shall
Who shall say I am not the happy genius of my household?
inside itself shall storm time
Time is a storm in which we are all lost. Only inside the convolutions of the storm itself shall we find our directions.
change discovered exploded forms language living meanings poems thus
Times change and forms and their meanings alter. Thus new poems are necessary. Their forms must be discovered in the living language of their day, or old forms, embodying exploded concepts, will tyrannize over the imagination.
prepared sleeping sure thus wise
Thus having prepared their budsagainst a sure winterthe wise treesstand sleeping in the cold.
race
We are a half-mad race, and what we say is not to be trusted.