Aphorisms and Poetry
Posted on April 14, 2012
Filed Under Aphorisms, metaphor | 7 Comments
Jim Finnegan, proprietor of the ursprache blog and author of the aphoristically amazing Tramp Freighter, altered me to ‘Making a Space for Aphorism: Exploring the Intersection between Aphorism and Poetry‘ by Sharon Dolin from Poets.org:
“In the last few years, I have been drawn to writing aphorisms, which I think of as small journeyings between poetry and prose. Too short, usually, to be considered prose poems, they nonetheless often have the pith and compression of poems. Yet how do they differ? In my American Heritage Dictionary, an aphorism is defined as “A terse statement of a truth or opinion; an adage.” The word comes from the Greek aphorismos, meaning “to delimit” or “define.” An aphorism draws a ring around—and then occupies—a very small territorial space.”
Click here to read the whole piece.
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7 Responses to “Aphorisms and Poetry”
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The rain that falls wherever it pleases. I want to be that rain.
No river could flow if it had to know its destination first.
Ask the wave as it withdraws what freedom is.
So Thin
It’s so thin
This veil that separates
Light and darkness
But as for the wall dividing
Sunlight and shadow
It has no thickness at all
Carpenters are paid to build houses, not explain how houses are built.
Fog can hide a city, but not itself.
The aphorist who uses the comment section on someone’s sincerely written and thought out essay just to foist their own work on us with NO reference to the author. I can’t tell you how narcissistic and rude this is. It seems to be practically the ‘norm’ on Mr. Geary’s site, I’m surprised he tolerates it.
It’s so thin, this thing,
This “norm” on Jim Geary’s website,
That separates, like shark fin soup,
The men from the boys,
Light and darkness,
Bull-shine from pastiche,
But as for the wall dividing
Dear Danny Leiberman’s brains from his
Sunlight and shadow:
It has no thickness at all,
As it’s just an opinion,
Dear Boy!
Dan, with all due respect, it’s a tradition that’s been established here, and a harmless one I think. It would be different if one foisted these “comments” on the original article itself. At least that’s how I see it. One is simply having fun and contributing to the site as well. I’m sorry if you disapprove-no offense or disrespect is ever intended.
The “Norm” will out in all of us — we need a new benchmark!