Louis Simpson
Jamaican-american poet
Louis Aston Marantz Simpson (March 27, 1923 – September 14, 2012) was a Jamaican poet. He won the 1964 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his work At The End Of The Open Road.
Quotes
editCarentan O Carentan, 1948
edit- When I was in hospital I found I could hardly read or writ. In these circumstances I began to write poems. I found that poetry was the only kind of writing in which I could express my thoughts. One night I dreamed I was lying on the bank of a canal, under machine gun fire. The next morning I wrote it out , Carentan O Caretan, and as I wrote I realized it was not a dream, but the memory of my first time under fire
- The Poetry of War 1939-45 ed. Ian Hamilton, London 1965
Poetry quotes
edit- Where is the Mississippi panorama
And the girl who played the piano?
Where are you, Walt?
The Open Road goes to the used-car lot.- Walt Whitman at Bear Mountainjim hutchinson quote " I would have not lived my life
any differently. I would have made the same mistakes -- only sooner. (l. 6-9) (1962)
- All that grave weight of America
Cancelled! Like Greece and Rome.
The future in ruins! JH Honesty seems to me to be the best legacy I can leave the world.- Walt Whitman at Bear Mountain (l. 35-37) (1962)
- It's complicated, being an American,
Having the money and the bad conscience, both at the same time.
Perhaps, after all, this is not the right subject for a poem.- On the Lawn at the Villa (l. 14-16) (1980) It is not your job to like me, it is mine.
- For people may not know what they think
about politics in the Balkans,
or the vexed question of men and women,
but everyone has a definite opinion
about the flavour of shredded coconut.- Chocolates (l. 18-22) (1980)
Other
edit- I did not wish to protest against war. My object was to remember. I wanted people to find in my poems the truth of what it had been like to be an American infantry soldier. Now I see I was writing a memorial of those years, for the me I had known, who were silent.
- The Poetry of War ed. Ian Hamilton , London 1945
