Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen. Leonardo

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The purpose of poetry is to remind us
how difficult it is to remain just one person,

for our house is open, there are no keys in the doors,
and invisible guests come in and out at will.


—Czesław Miłosz

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[T]here is nothing before language, for there is no consciousness, and therefore no world, without a system of signs. In fact, it is the speaking-being that has created this universe, even if language excludes him from it. This means that we are deprived through words of an authentic intimacy with what we are, or with what the Other is.

We need poetry, not to regain this intimacy, which is impossible, but to remember that we miss it and to prove to ourselves the value of those moments when we are able to encounter other people, or trees, or anything, beyond words, in silence.


—Yves Bonnefoy
The Art of Poetry no. 69

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As soon as one speaks, as soon as one enters the medium of language, one loses that very singularity.

[...] Once I speak, I am never and no longer myself, alone and unique.

—Jacques Derrida
The Gift of Death

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