--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: When people talk about poetry as a…" description: "\"“When people talk about poetry as a project, they suggest that the road through a poem is a single line. When really the road through a poem is a serie..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9cd/dorothea-lasky-61387_poetry_when-people-talk-about-poetry-as-a-proje_685971.jpg" --- # When people talk about poetry as a project, they suggest… ![“When people talk about poetry as a project, they suggest that the road through a poem is a single line. When really the road through a poem is a series of lines, like a constellation, all interconnected. Poems take place in the realm of chance, where the self and the universal combine, where life…” quote by Dorothea Lasky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9cd/dorothea-lasky-61387_poetry_when-people-talk-about-poetry-as-a-proje_685971.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9cd/dorothea-lasky-61387_poetry_when-people-talk-about-poetry-as-a-proje_685971.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9cd/dorothea-lasky-61387_poetry_when-people-talk-about-poetry-as-a-proje_685971.jpg) > ““When people talk about poetry as a project, they suggest that the road through a poem is a single line. When really the road through a poem is a series of lines, like a constellation, all interconnected. Poems take place in the realm of chance, where the self and the universal combine, where life exist. I can’t suggest to you that going through a line that is more like a constellation than a road is easy—or that the blurring of the self and the universal doesn’t shred a poet a little bit in the process. The terrain of a poem is unmapped (including the shapes of the trees along the constellation-road). A great poet knows never to expect sun or rain or cold or wind in the process of creating a poem. In a great poem all can come to the fore at once. It would be worse yet, if none are there at all.”” [Dorothea Lasky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dorothea-lasky/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Poetry is a complex, interconnected network rather than a single path, blending personal and universal, chance and intention, demanding openness to multiple forces. **In simple terms:** Poems are like constellations, not straight roads. Key Takeaway Embrace uncertainty and multiplicity in creative work. Themes creativity interconnectedness uncertainty self‑universal Mood reflective inquisitive Type philosophical inspirational When to use this quote - writing workshops - literary analysis - creative therapy - teaching poetry Key Concepts poetics systems thinking chance Questions to Reflect On - How do you balance structure and spontaneity? - What forces shape your creative process? A Different Perspective The metaphor may over‑idealize chaos, ignoring the need for structure. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) [Writing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writing/) ## Related quotes > [I do not suppose that anyone not a poet can realize the agony of creating a poem. Every nerve, even every muscle, seems strained…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amy-lowell/i-do-not-suppose-that-anyone-not-a-poet-can-realize-the-agony-of/) [Amy Lowell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amy-lowell/) > [Creating a poem is a continual process of re-creating your ignorance, in the sense of not knowing what's coming next.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-walcott/creating-a-poem-is-a-continual-process-of-re-creating-your-ignorance/) [Derek Walcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-walcott/) > [It always amuses me that the biggest praise for my work comes for the imagination, while the truth is that there's not a single…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gabriel-garc-a-m-rquez/it-always-amuses-me-that-the-biggest-praise-for-my-work-comes-for-the/) [Gabriel Garcia Marquez](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gabriel-garc-a-m-rquez/) > [Every great artist must begin by learning to draw with the single line, and my advice to young animators is to learn how to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chuck-jones/every-great-artist-must-begin-by-learning-to-draw-with-the-single/) [Chuck Jones](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chuck-jones/) > [“It wasn’t until she was about to press Play, just as she was climbing under her covers, that she noticed it, the envelope tucked…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kimberly-derting/it-wasn-t-until-she-was-about-to-press-play-just-as-she-was-climbing/) [Kimberly Derting](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kimberly-derting/) > [“The biggest shift was from a bar graph to a line graph. As we’ve discussed, line graphs typically make it easier to see trends…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cole-nussbaumer-knaflic/the-biggest-shift-was-from-a-bar-graph-to-a-line-graph-as-we-ve/) [Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cole-nussbaumer-knaflic/) > [The man who could withstand, with his fellow-men in single line, a charge of cavalry may lose all command of himself on the occurrence…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/arthur-helps/the-man-who-could-withstand-with-his-fellow-men-in-single-line-a/) [Arthur Helps](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/arthur-helps/) > [There is not a single line in this diary that does not call for a correction or a denial...Yes: throughout these pages I meant…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/simone-de-beauvoir/there-is-not-a-single-line-in-this-diary-that-does-not-call-for-a/) [Simone de Beauvoir](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/simone-de-beauvoir/) > [Everything I write goes through a lot of drafts. A hundred rewrites is not unusual for me to go through - the last fifty…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-berman/everything-i-write-goes-through-a-lot-of-drafts-a-hundred-rewrites-is/) [David Berman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-berman/) > [“…and Dave and I, we were doing this…this weird circling thing, like we needed to figure out every single line of the script before…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mira-grant/and-dave-and-i-we-were-doing-this-this-weird-circling-thing-like-we/) [Mira Grant](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mira-grant/) > [I don't know if it was written off in that single line in Thor. It was given another way of looking at it. There…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kevin-feige/i-don-t-know-if-it-was-written-off-in-that-single-line-in-thor-it-was/) [Kevin Feige](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kevin-feige/) > [“In the illusion of delusion, between madness and lawlessness I exist. I dream about dreams, about illusions and disillusions and cold and madness and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/e-c-lemus/in-the-illusion-of-delusion-between-madness-and-lawlessness-i-exist-i/) [E.C. Lemus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/e-c-lemus/) > [I just want people to remember me a hundred years from now. I don't care that they're not able to quote any single line…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rod-serling/i-just-want-people-to-remember-me-a-hundred-years-from-now-i-don-t/) [Rod Serling](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rod-serling/) > [A comic should suffer as much over a single line as a man with a hernia would in picking up a heavy barbell.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-c-fields/a-comic-should-suffer-as-much-over-a-single-line-as-a-man-with-a/) [W. C. Fields](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-c-fields/) > [“Although neither the Freudians nor the Jungians come right out and say it, they strongly suggest that we may have a core, a single…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stephen-king/although-neither-the-freudians-nor-the-jungians-come-right-out-and/) [Stephen King](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stephen-king/) ## More by Dorothea Lasky > [Beachy Head brims with electrical currents flying backwards and forwards, with the force of poems that have been well fought out and felt. I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dorothea-lasky/beachy-head-brims-with-electrical-currents-flying-backwards-and/) [Dorothea Lasky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dorothea-lasky/) > [Real poetry is a party, a wild party, a party where anything might happen. A party from which you may never return home.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dorothea-lasky/real-poetry-is-a-party-a-wild-party-a-party-where-anything-might/) [Dorothea Lasky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dorothea-lasky/) > [“I reached deep in you and pulled out a cardinal which in bright red flew out the window. ”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dorothea-lasky/i-reached-deep-in-you-and-pulled-out-a-cardinal-which-in-bright-red/) [Dorothea Lasky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dorothea-lasky/) > [Emily Kendal Frey's The Grief Performance is a book that condenses a journey of finding and re-finding loss into beautiful packages. The packages are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dorothea-lasky/emily-kendal-frey-s-the-grief-performance-is-a-book-that-condenses-a/) [Dorothea Lasky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dorothea-lasky/) [Explore all 5 Dorothea Lasky quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dorothea-lasky/) ## 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": "“When people talk about poetry as a project, they suggest that the road through a poem is a single line. When really the road through a poem is a series of lines, like a constellation, all interconnected. Poems take place in the realm of chance, where the self and the universal combine, where life exist. I can’t suggest to you that going through a line that is more like a constellation than a road is easy—or that the blurring of the self and the universal doesn’t shred a poet a little bit in the process. The terrain of a poem is unmapped (including the shapes of the trees along the constellation-road). A great poet knows never to expect sun or rain or cold or wind in the process of creating a poem. In a great poem all can come to the fore at once. It would be worse yet, if none are there at all.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Dorothea Lasky" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dorothea-lasky/when-people-talk-about-poetry-as-a-project-they-suggest-that-the-road/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Poetry" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dorothea-lasky/when-people-talk-about-poetry-as-a-project-they-suggest-that-the-road/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9cd/dorothea-lasky-61387_poetry_when-people-talk-about-poetry-as-a-proje_685971.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9cd/dorothea-lasky-61387_poetry_when-people-talk-about-poetry-as-a-proje_685971.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9cd/dorothea-lasky-61387_poetry_when-people-talk-about-poetry-as-a-proje_685971.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“When people talk about poetry as a project, they suggest that the road through a poem is a single line. When…” — Dorothea Lasky", "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": "Dorothea Lasky", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dorothea-lasky/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“When people talk about poetry as...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dorothea-lasky/when-people-talk-about-poetry-as-a-project-they-suggest-that-the-road/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dorothea-lasky/when-people-talk-about-poetry-as-a-project-they-suggest-that-the-road/#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 } } ] } ```