a few (purpose driven) words by anne stevenson:

I was brought up in the (american) tradition of self-making, self-pity and self-advertising. It began to sink in on me that "i" is not the best foundation upon which to build an art. Any art needs a tradition, a history, a mythology, a faith. Poetry has so far been the best way of "making" I've found. But prose might do as well. Or prayer, which is most difficult of all. No artist can be optimistic in days of spiritual decay, but it is possible to be honest. And joyful. In these days of superfluous affluence, rewarded wickedness and sophisticated violence, my answer is to live simply, reducing my needs to the level of the beautiful and the necessary. From a position of having much and little, it is possible to live more richly than i ever imagined.


i say.