--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Creating a poem is a continual process of…" description: "\"Creating a poem is a continual process of re-creating your ignorance, in the sense of not knowing what's coming next.\" — Derek Walcott" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d25/derek-walcott-2220_ignorance_creating-a-poem-is-a-continual-process-o_332427.jpg" --- # Creating a poem is a continual process of re-creating your… ![“Creating a poem is a continual process of re-creating your ignorance, in the sense of not knowing what's coming next.” quote by Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d25/derek-walcott-2220_ignorance_creating-a-poem-is-a-continual-process-o_332427.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d25/derek-walcott-2220_ignorance_creating-a-poem-is-a-continual-process-o_332427.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d25/derek-walcott-2220_ignorance_creating-a-poem-is-a-continual-process-o_332427.jpg) > “Creating a poem is a continual process of re-creating your ignorance, in the sense of not knowing what's coming next.” [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Artistic creation continually uncovers unknowns, renewing humility and curiosity. **In simple terms:** Creating art reveals ignorance. Key Takeaway Embrace the unknown in creation. Themes creativity humility learning process growth Mood inquisitive reflective inspirational Type literary philosophical creative When to use this quote - writing workshops - creative retreats - educational curricula - personal journaling Key Concepts recursive creation epistemic humility artistic evolution Questions to Reflect On - How does acknowledging ignorance fuel artistic growth? - What practices keep the creative process alive? A Different Perspective Overemphasis on ignorance may hinder confidence. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Creating Ignorance](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/creating-ignorance-3107908/) [Creating Poem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/creating-poem-2059354/) [Ignorance](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ignorance/) [Next](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/next/) [Not knowing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/not-knowing/) [Poem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poem/) [Poem Continual](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poem-continual-3107909/) [Poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) [Process](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/process/) ## Related quotes > [“When people talk about poetry as a project, they suggest that the road through a poem is a single line. 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Someone that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kieran-bew/when-you-read-the-poem-you-wonder-what-might-grendel-have-been-could/) [Kieran Bew](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kieran-bew/) > [I've always been afraid of who I am and not knowing what I can do.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/keala-settle/i-ve-always-been-afraid-of-who-i-am-and-not-knowing-what-i-can-do/) [Keala Settle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/keala-settle/) > [Not knowing how to feed the spirit, we try to muffle its demands in distraction...What matters is that one be for a time inwardly…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-morrow-lindbergh/not-knowing-how-to-feed-the-spirit-we-try-to-muffle-its-demands-in/) [Anne Morrow Lindbergh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-morrow-lindbergh/) > [When you rest deeply in the Unknown without trying to escape, your experience becomes very vast. As the experience of the Unknown deepens, your…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adyashanti/when-you-rest-deeply-in-the-unknown-without-trying-to-escape-your/) [Adyashanti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adyashanti/) > [Those who are the most happy appear to know it the least; happiness is something that for the most part seems to mainly consist…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joyce-brothers/those-who-are-the-most-happy-appear-to-know-it-the-least-happiness-is/) [Joyce Brothers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joyce-brothers/) ## More by Derek Walcott > [Memory that yearns to join the centre, a limb remembering the body from which it has been severed, like those bamboo thighs of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/memory-that-yearns-to-join-the-centre-a-limb-remembering-the-body/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [Peel your own image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on your life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/peel-your-own-image-from-the-mirror-sit-feast-on-your-life/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [I don't feel I've arrived home until I get on the beach. All my life, the theater of the sea has been a very…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/i-don-t-feel-i-ve-arrived-home-until-i-get-on-the-beach-all-my-life/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [“As human beings we’ve certainly suffered the loss of awe, the loss of sacredness, and the loss of the fact that we’re not here—…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/as-human-beings-we-ve-certainly-suffered-the-loss-of-awe-the-loss-of/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [“I shall unlearn feeling, unlearn my gift. 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All my life, I've been aware of her grief about his…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/my-mother-who-is-nearly-ninety-now-still-talks-continually-about-my/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [My family background really only consists of my mother. She was a widow. My father died quite young; he must have been thirty-one. Then…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/my-family-background-really-only-consists-of-my-mother-she-was-a/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [“I am the man my father loved and was.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/i-am-the-man-my-father-loved-and-was/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [Like any art, what is the most imprisoning thing is also the most delivering thing. If an actor knows he only has 12 syllables…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/like-any-art-what-is-the-most-imprisoning-thing-is-also-the-most/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [The thing that is believed is a reality.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/the-thing-that-is-believed-is-a-reality/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [The history of the world - by which, of course, we mean Europe - is a record of intertribal lacerations, of ethnic cleansings.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/the-history-of-the-world-by-which-of-course-we-mean-europe-is-a/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [The English language is nobody's special property. It is the property of the imagination: it is the property of the language itself.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/the-english-language-is-nobody-s-special-property-it-is-the-property/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) [Explore all 177 Derek Walcott quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) ## More Ignorance quotes > [My folks tried to make a preacher of me and missed by a narrow margin… I would have made a good one if I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-a-heinlein/my-folks-tried-to-make-a-preacher-of-me-and-missed-by-a-narrow-margin/) [Robert A. Heinlein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-a-heinlein/) > [If you had made the acquiring of ignorance the study of your life, you could not have graduated with higher honor than you could…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/if-you-had-made-the-acquiring-of-ignorance-the-study-of-your-life-you/) [Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/) > [One of the deepest and strangest of all human moods is the mood which will suddenly strike us perhaps in a garden at night,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/one-of-the-deepest-and-strangest-of-all-human-moods-is-the-mood-which/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Ignorance is not bliss — it is oblivion. Determined ignorance is the hastiest kind of oblivion.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/philip-wylie/ignorance-is-not-bliss-it-is-oblivion-determined-ignorance-is-the/) [Philip Wylie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/philip-wylie/) > [... informed ignorance provides the natural state of mind for research scientists at the ever-shifting frontiers of knowledge. People who believe themselves ignorant of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-degrasse-tyson/informed-ignorance-provides-the-natural-state-of-mind-for-research/) [Neil deGrasse Tyson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-degrasse-tyson/) > [“If knowledge does not liberate the self from the self, then ignorance is better than such knowledge.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hakim-sanai/if-knowledge-does-not-liberate-the-self-from-the-self-then-ignorance/) [Hakim Sanai](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hakim-sanai/) > [You are senile old fool, and because of your impudence, I cannot fathom how you still live!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/you-are-senile-old-fool-and-because-of-your-impudence-i-cannot-fathom/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Surely, God could have caused birds to fly with their bones made of solid gold, with their veins full of quicksilver, with their flesh…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/galileo-galilei/surely-god-could-have-caused-birds-to-fly-with-their-bones-made-of/) [Galileo Galilei](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/galileo-galilei/) > [“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives. A…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-madison/knowledge-will-forever-govern-ignorance-and-a-people-who-mean-to-be/) [James Madison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-madison/) > [“Don’t turn your face away. Once you’ve seen, you can no longer act like you don’t know. Open your eyes to the truth. 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Audette](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-r-audette/) [Browse all 5,657 Ignorance quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ignorance/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Creating a poem is a continual process of re-creating your ignorance, in the sense of not knowing what's coming next.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Derek Walcott" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/creating-a-poem-is-a-continual-process-of-re-creating-your-ignorance/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Ignorance" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/creating-a-poem-is-a-continual-process-of-re-creating-your-ignorance/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d25/derek-walcott-2220_ignorance_creating-a-poem-is-a-continual-process-o_332427.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d25/derek-walcott-2220_ignorance_creating-a-poem-is-a-continual-process-o_332427.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d25/derek-walcott-2220_ignorance_creating-a-poem-is-a-continual-process-o_332427.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Creating a poem is a continual process of re-creating your ignorance, in the sense of not knowing what's…” — Derek Walcott", "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": "Derek Walcott", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Creating a poem is a continual...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/creating-a-poem-is-a-continual-process-of-re-creating-your-ignorance/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/creating-a-poem-is-a-continual-process-of-re-creating-your-ignorance/#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 } } ] } ```