Ben Bruges

“We do not find the complete human being in philosophy; we do not find the totality of the human experience in poetry. In poetry, we directly encounter the specific human instance, the individual. In philosophy we see ‘man’ in his historical context, in his will to be. Poetry is serendipitous encounter, a gift, a matter of grace. Philosophy searches, but it must follow a method. No se encuentra el hombre entero en la filosofía; no se encuentra la totalidad de lo humano en la poesía. En la poesía encontramos directamente al hombre concreto, individual. En la filosofía al hombre en su historia universal, en su querer ser. La poesía es encuentro, don, hallazgo por gracia. La filosofía busca, requerimiento guiado por un método.”
― John Burnside, The Music of Time: Poetry in the Twentieth Century

“Odd, then, that this is where poetry seems to begin too – single words or phrases, or just a rhythm sliding from one train of thought to another, nothing to do with reason, or philosophy or the intensely meant moral or political ideas that, surely, poetry is supposed to ‘be about’. But no, making a poem is more like beachcombing than some considered, professional practice; there is nothing deliberate there to explain, you just begin to feel it and then, gradually, things – images, words, echoes – begin to cohere.”
― John Burnside, The Music of Time: Poetry in the Twentieth Century