w.s. di piero on words as “pleasure-givers and pain-bearers.”
Words are abundances and afflictions—they give to us and take from us, they’re pleasure-givers and pain-bearers. They sing back at us not just knowledge of a singular moment but of an entire historic surround. Poetry makes a memorable impress not because it’s precious but because its actions are an impassioned activity of consciousness, and the actions change on us as we grow older. It’s a scarily private experience, it’s all personal, yet it’s only words in sequences.
—W.S. Di Piero, “Table Talk,” Threepenny Review 149, Spring 2017