I once read a poem (or a line, I can’t tell),
In which it said that whatever thought you had
A poet was there before you.
I forgot what the poem was,
All I know is that it’s from a long time ago,
Perhaps, who knows?, it was during my high school years.
But it’s true – when you write a poem
You tend to go where no one has gone before.
Far, far away, and sometimes even further.
You stretch the imagination.
A poet needs comparisons like you wouldn’t dream of,
Like an atom outside of this Universe,
He goes with his mind in the obvious
And uncovers the unseen,
He associates a flower with a feeling,
A smell with an emotion,
And you don’t even know why now have these emotions in you.
It might be wizardry, who knows?
PS, 2020.06.26: … aaaaand … I’ve found the quote:
It is likely a corruption of another quote, ‘The poets and philosophers before me discovered the unconscious. What I discovered was the scientific method by which the unconscious can be studied.’ Sadly, there is no direct source for this quote either. It first appears in a 1940 journal article by Philip R. Lehrman. (via »)
