---
title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: If the incision of our words amounts to…"
description: "\"“If the incision of our words amounts to nothing but a feeling, a slow motion, it will still cut a better swath than the factory model, the corporate m..."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cf0/c-d-wright-28793_poetry_if-the-incision-of-our-words-amounts-to_1860489.jpg"
---

#  If the incision of our words amounts to nothing but a…

![“If the incision of our words amounts to nothing but a feeling, a slow motion, it will still cut a better swath than the factory model, the corporate model, the penitentiary model, which by my lights are one and the same.” quote by C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cf0/c-d-wright-28793_poetry_if-the-incision-of-our-words-amounts-to_1860489.jpg)   [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cf0/c-d-wright-28793_poetry_if-the-incision-of-our-words-amounts-to_1860489.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cf0/c-d-wright-28793_poetry_if-the-incision-of-our-words-amounts-to_1860489.jpg)

> ““If the incision of our words amounts to nothing but a feeling, a slow motion, it will still cut a better swath than the factory model, the corporate model, the penitentiary model, which by my lights are one and the same.””

[C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/)

## About This Quote

This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.

Words, even when merely feeling, can cut deeper than rigid institutional systems that imprison thought.

**In simple terms:** Words can cut deeper than oppressive systems.

Key Takeaway

Use expressive language to challenge structures.

Themes

language resistance art

Mood

defiant critical

Type

poetic political

When to use this quote

- Activist writing
- creative workshops
- social critique

Key Concepts

Poetics of dissent critical theory

Questions to Reflect On

- How can you make your words more piercing?
- What systems need confronting today?

A Different Perspective

Impact depends on audience reception.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★   No ratings yet

[Poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/)

## Related quotes

> [My life is a crystal teardrop. There are snowflakes falling in the teardrop and little figures trudging in slow motion.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-baez/my-life-is-a-crystal-teardrop-there-are-snowflakes-falling-in-the/)

[Joan Baez](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-baez/)

> [“Her attention was on the first knight, pulling back his bowstring, taking aim. She paused, sensed the wind and revised her aim, then let…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lisa-tawn-bergren/her-attention-was-on-the-first-knight-pulling-back-his-bowstring/)

[Lisa Tawn Bergren](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lisa-tawn-bergren/)

> [“In an ideal world, we might have dreamed of a benevolent hand intervening so that one of them tarried a little longer while the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timoth-e-de-fombelle/in-an-ideal-world-we-might-have-dreamed-of-a-benevolent-hand/)

[Timothée de Fombelle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timoth-e-de-fombelle/)

> [“A-Actually, the flower that sprang up would have been the iris or larkspur, not the modern hyacinth, but that is how it earned its…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/judith-mcnaught/a-actually-the-flower-that-sprang-up-would-have-been-the-iris-or/)

[Judith McNaught](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/judith-mcnaught/)

> [O Time with your teethy years! You swallow up all things little by little in a slow-motion, wrinkling process of dying.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leonardo-da-vinci/o-time-with-your-teethy-years-you-swallow-up-all-things-little-by/)

[Leonardo da Vinci](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leonardo-da-vinci/)

> [In my first-ever shot, there was a big shell that was dropped on my belly in slow motion. I even asked the director why…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ileana-d-cruz/in-my-first-ever-shot-there-was-a-big-shell-that-was-dropped-on-my/)

[Ileana D'Cruz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ileana-d-cruz/)

> [“Philosophy is thinking in slow motion. It breaks down, describes and assesses moves we ordinarily make at great speed - to do with our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-campbell/philosophy-is-thinking-in-slow-motion-it-breaks-down-describes-and/)

John Campbell

> [Now there she goes again, the dopest Ethiopian, And now the world around me be gets movin in slow motion Whenever she happens to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fatlip/now-there-she-goes-again-the-dopest-ethiopian-and-now-the-world/)

Fatlip

> [“When he poured a taste of Madeira for the Master Sommelier at my table, a splash of wine hit the rim of the glass.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bianca-bosker/when-he-poured-a-taste-of-madeira-for-the-master-sommelier-at-my/)

[Bianca Bosker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bianca-bosker/)

> [My very first scrimmage at Kansas, I got dunked on so hard by Tarik Black that I almost quit. Tarik dunked on me so…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joel-embiid/my-very-first-scrimmage-at-kansas-i-got-dunked-on-so-hard-by-tarik/)

[Joel Embiid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joel-embiid/)

> [“My world speeds up. After years of moving along in slow motion, I am suddenly surging through the moments. He touches me, and like…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/julie-cantrell/my-world-speeds-up-after-years-of-moving-along-in-slow-motion-i-am/)

[Julie Cantrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/julie-cantrell/)

> [There were probably about five games in my career where everything was moving in slow motion and you could be out there all day,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-taylor/there-were-probably-about-five-games-in-my-career-where-everything/)

[Lawrence Taylor](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-taylor/)

> [“...I've decided ... love is an eternity of slow motion replays ...”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-geddes/i-ve-decided-love-is-an-eternity-of-slow-motion-replays/)

[John Geddes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-geddes/)

> [“As I listened I thought a featureless baggy man was striking me in slow motion with a well-polished stone.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/don-delillo/as-i-listened-i-thought-a-featureless-baggy-man-was-striking-me-in/)

[Don DeLillo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/don-delillo/)

> [“THE WAIT: It is life in slow motion, it's the heart in reverse, it's a hope-and-a-half: too much and too little at once. It's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/the-wait-it-is-life-in-slow-motion-it-s-the-heart-in-reverse-it-s-a/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

## More by C.D. Wright

> [There is an idealism associated with poetry I would not dispel but question. It doesn't change anything except within. It shifts your insides around.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/there-is-an-idealism-associated-with-poetry-i-would-not-dispel-but/)

[C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/)

> [Poetry is the language of intensity. Because we are going to die, an expression of intensity is justified.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/poetry-is-the-language-of-intensity-because-we-are-going-to-die-an/)

[C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/)

> [It is a function of poetry to locate those zones inside us that would be free, and declare them so.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/it-is-a-function-of-poetry-to-locate-those-zones-inside-us-that-would/)

[C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/)

> [Almost none of the poetries I admire stick to their labels, native or adopted ones. Rather, they are vagrant in their identifications. Tramp poets,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/almost-none-of-the-poetries-i-admire-stick-to-their-labels-native-or/)

[C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/)

> [“I believe the word used wrongly distorts the world.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/i-believe-the-word-used-wrongly-distorts-the-world/)

[C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/)

> [One opinion I share with the Dadaists is that art-making presupposes a revolutionary state of mind. Assimilating the practice into commodity or symbol of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/one-opinion-i-share-with-the-dadaists-is-that-art-making-presupposes/)

[C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/)

> [Poetry is a necessity of life,](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/poetry-is-a-necessity-of-life/)

[C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/)

> [Poetry requires deliberate movement in its direction, a filament of faith in its persistence, receptivity to its fundamental worthwhileness. Within its unanesthetized heart there…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/poetry-requires-deliberate-movement-in-its-direction-a-filament-of/)

[C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/)

> [Poetry seems especially like nothing else so much as itself. Poetry is not like, it is the very lining of the inner life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/poetry-seems-especially-like-nothing-else-so-much-as-itself-poetry-is/)

[C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/)

> [The artistic reward for refuting the received national tradition is liberation. The price is homelessness. Interior exile.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/the-artistic-reward-for-refuting-the-received-national-tradition-is/)

[C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/)

> [I have taught the long poem off and on for years. The more book-length poems I read and studied and taught the more interested…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/i-have-taught-the-long-poem-off-and-on-for-years-the-more-book-length/)

[C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/)

> [Everyone in their car needs love.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/everyone-in-their-car-needs-love/)

[C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/)

> [I think a book-length poem stands about as good a chance as a collection of individual poems in reaching its field of ears. This…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/i-think-a-book-length-poem-stands-about-as-good-a-chance-as-a/)

[C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/)

> [“If religion, she also liked to say, is the opiate of the masses, fundamentalism is the amphetamine.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/if-religion-she-also-liked-to-say-is-the-opiate-of-the-masses/)

[C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/)

> [I am suggesting that the radical of poetry lies not in the resolution of doubts but in their proliferation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/i-am-suggesting-that-the-radical-of-poetry-lies-not-in-the-resolution/)

[C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/)

[Explore all 19 C.D. Wright quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/)

## More Poetry quotes

> [I fell in love with social work, and that was my undoing as a poet.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-rakosi/i-fell-in-love-with-social-work-and-that-was-my-undoing-as-a-poet/)

[Carl Rakosi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-rakosi/)

> [The name Phenomenal Woman was inspired by Maya Angelo, who wrote 'Phenomenal Woman', a favorite poem of mine.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/meena-harris/the-name-phenomenal-woman-was-inspired-by-maya-angelo-who-wrote/)

[Meena Harris](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/meena-harris/)

> [A poet is wounded into speech, and he examines these wounds, meticulously, to discover how to heal them. The bad poet harangues at the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samuel-r-delany/a-poet-is-wounded-into-speech-and-he-examines-these-wounds/)

[Samuel R. Delany](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/samuel-r-delany/)

> [“Time gives poetry to a battlefield...”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/graham-greene/time-gives-poetry-to-a-battlefield/)

[Graham Greene](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/graham-greene/)

> [The poetry from the eighteenth century was prose; the prose from the seventeenth century was poetry.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-hare/the-poetry-from-the-eighteenth-century-was-prose-the-prose-from-the/)

[David Hare](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-hare/)

> [“It took me years to learn to sit at my desk for more than two minutes at a time, to put up with the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erica-jong/it-took-me-years-to-learn-to-sit-at-my-desk-for-more-than-two-minutes/)

[Erica Jong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erica-jong/)

> [The word 'mundane' has come to mean 'boring' and 'dull', and it really shouldn't - it should mean the opposite. Because it comes from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-dawkins/the-word-mundane-has-come-to-mean-boring-and-dull-and-it-really/)

[Richard Dawkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-dawkins/)

> [“In the streets, the children scream, the lovers cried, and the poets dreamed,” he crooned, putting down the metal grill tongs to take my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexandria-clarke/in-the-streets-the-children-scream-the-lovers-cried-and-the-poets/)

[Alexandria Clarke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexandria-clarke/)

> [Some minds corrode and grow inactive under the loss of personal liberty; others grow morbid and irritable; but it is the nature of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/washington-irving/some-minds-corrode-and-grow-inactive-under-the-loss-of-personal/)

[Washington Irving](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/washington-irving/)

> [You don’t read or overhear the voice in the poem, you are the voice in the poem.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/helen-vendler/you-don-t-read-or-overhear-the-voice-in-the-poem-you-are-the-voice-in/)

[Helen Vendler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/helen-vendler/)

> [All lyrical work must, as a whole, be perfectly intelligible, but in some particulars a little unintelligible.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/all-lyrical-work-must-as-a-whole-be-perfectly-intelligible-but-in/)

[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/)

> [The world's history is a divine poem, of which the history of every nation is a canto, and every man a word. Its strains…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-a-garfield/the-world-s-history-is-a-divine-poem-of-which-the-history-of-every/)

[James A. Garfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-a-garfield/)

> [I was interested in all kinds of things, whether it be Avatar, Mad Men, Troy, 300, Battlestar Gallactica, or the poems of Horace and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/daniel-mendelsohn/i-was-interested-in-all-kinds-of-things-whether-it-be-avatar-mad-men/)

[Daniel Mendelsohn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/daniel-mendelsohn/)

> [“I promise to respect and protect your aloneness, knowing that everything created must have its period of darkness: child and bulb, poem and personality.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-morrow-lindbergh/i-promise-to-respect-and-protect-your-aloneness-knowing-that/)

[anne morrow lindbergh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-morrow-lindbergh/)

> [“Things are more like they are now...than they have EVER been before!”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/uncle-arnie-mamath/things-are-more-like-they-are-now-than-they-have-ever-been-before/)

Uncle Arnie Mamath

[Browse all 21,625 Poetry quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/)

```json
{
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "Quotation",
            "text": "“If the incision of our words amounts to nothing but a feeling, a slow motion, it will still cut a better swath than the factory model, the corporate model, the penitentiary model, which by my lights are one and the same.”",
            "creator": {
                "@type": "Person",
                "name": "C.D. Wright"
            },
            "isPartOf": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website"
            },
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/if-the-incision-of-our-words-amounts-to-nothing-but-a-feeling-a-slow/",
            "about": {
                "@type": "Thing",
                "name": "Poetry"
            },
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/if-the-incision-of-our-words-amounts-to-nothing-but-a-feeling-a-slow/#quotation",
            "image": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cf0/c-d-wright-28793_poetry_if-the-incision-of-our-words-amounts-to_1860489.jpg",
                "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cf0/c-d-wright-28793_poetry_if-the-incision-of-our-words-amounts-to_1860489.jpg",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cf0/c-d-wright-28793_poetry_if-the-incision-of-our-words-amounts-to_1860489.jpg",
                "width": 1080,
                "height": 1080,
                "caption": "“If the incision of our words amounts to nothing but a feeling, a slow motion, it will still cut a better…” — C.D. Wright",
                "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                "creator": {
                    "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                }
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "name": "Home",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "name": "Quotes",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 3,
                    "name": "C.D. Wright",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 4,
                    "name": "“If the incision of our words...",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/if-the-incision-of-our-words-amounts-to-nothing-but-a-feeling-a-slow/"
                }
            ],
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/if-the-incision-of-our-words-amounts-to-nothing-but-a-feeling-a-slow/#breadcrumb"
        },
        {
            "@type": "WebSite",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "publisher": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "Organization",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "logo": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png",
                "width": 512,
                "height": 512
            }
        }
    ]
}
```
