transforming illusion into reality
Posted by Daniela Elza on Mar 04 2007
from Problems of the Revolutionary Poet in Contemporary Times by Thomas McGrath.
Language is always a little out of date and so it always needs reforming: because the world changes; because the real landscape that underlies the landscape of the poem erodes and alters; because our consciousness changes to catch up with the changes in the world; because the world is never adequate to our needs and desires and so we must change it–and by doing so change our needs and desires. The best poets find the new words for this new world of change and need. They may not be understood or felt until we see that the world is changing and “filling in” their words. Then “illusion” is transformed into “reality”.