{"id":12017,"date":"2009-12-12T11:09:42","date_gmt":"2009-12-12T11:09:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2009\/12\/12\/good-advice-from-john-ciardi\/"},"modified":"2009-12-12T11:09:42","modified_gmt":"2009-12-12T11:09:42","slug":"good-advice-from-john-ciardi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2009\/12\/12\/good-advice-from-john-ciardi\/","title":{"rendered":"Good Advice from John Ciardi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Poet John Ciardi (pronounced Chyar-dee,<\/em> emphasis on first syllable, not See-ar-dee<\/em>) was born in 1916 and died in 1986. A brilliant line of his sticks with me, though I cannot recall where he said it, and Mr. Google didn't help: "Never send a poem on a prose errand." Tattoo that onto your forearms, you would-be poets. (I myself am no poet, I know it, so I can't possibly blow it.  I hereby allude to a certain troubadour who, though I would not call him a poet, others would.)<\/font><\/p>\n

Here is the epitaph Ciardi composed for himself:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

Here, time concurring (and it does);
Lies Ciardi. If no kingdom come,
A kingdom was. Such as it was
This one beside it is a slum.<\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

UPDATE (14 December):  The ever-helpful David Gordon, and that indefatigable argonaut of cyberspace, Dave Lull, inform me that Ciardi's exact words were, "But I have learned not to send a poem on a prose errand."  The quotation can be found on p. 60 of <\/font>Ciardi Himself: Fifteen Essays in the Reading, Writing, and Teaching of Poetry.<\/font><\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poet John Ciardi (pronounced Chyar-dee, emphasis on first syllable, not See-ar-dee) was born in 1916 and died in 1986. A brilliant line of his sticks with me, though I cannot recall where he said it, and Mr. Google didn't help: "Never send a poem on a prose errand." Tattoo that onto your forearms, you would-be poets. … Continue reading “Good Advice from John Ciardi”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,161],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literary-matters","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12017\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}