THE ART OF POETRY BY OCTAVIO PAZ

"Each poem is different.Often the first line is a gift.I dont know if from the Gods or from that mysterious faculty called Inspiration.I wrote the first verses as if someone were silently dictating then to me.I am surprise at the fluidity with the lines apeared one after other.They came from far off and from nearby,from within my own chest.Suddenly the current stopped flowing.I read what I write,and I dindt have to change a thing.But is only the beginning,and I had no idea where those lines were going.A few days later I tried to get started again,not in a passive way but trying to orient and direct the flow of verses.I write again.I stopped.I went back in a few later and little by little,I began to discover the theme of the poem and where it was all heading.It is a kind of review of my life,a resurrection of my experiences,my concerns,my failures,my obsessions.I realized I am living the end of my youth and that poem was simultaneously the end and a new begining"

Octavio Paz,mexican poet,Nobel Prize of Literature
Image: A Mural by Diego Rivera,mexican painter.