...It has happened that we have been afflicted with a basic deprivation, to such an extent that we seem to be missing some vital organs, even as we try to survive somehow. Theology, science, philosophy, though they attempt to provide cures, are not very effective "in that dark world where gods have lost their way" (Roethke). They are able at best to confirm that our affliction is not invented....
Poetry is quite different. By its very nature it says: All those theories are untrue. Since poetry deals with the singular, it cannot --- if it is good poetry -- look at things of this earth other than as colorful, variegated, and exciting, and so, it cannot reduce life, with all its pain, horror, suffering, and ecstasy, to a unified tonality of boredom or complaint. By necessity poetry is therefore on the side of being, and against nothingness. - Milosz
