Quote of the Day (Wallace Stevens, on the ‘Spiritual Role of the Poet’)

“My own way out toward the future involves a confidence in the spiritual role of the poet, who will somehow have to assist the painter, etc. (any artist, to tell the truth) in restoring to the imagination what it is losing at such a catastrophic pace.”— American modernist poet Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), letter to Henry Church, June 1, 1939, in Letters of Wallace Stevens, edited by Holly Stevens (1966)

Quote of the Day (Wallace Stevens, on a ‘Mind of Winter’)

“One must have a mind of winter

To regard the frost and the boughs

Of the pine-trees crusted with snow.”—American poet Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), “The Snow Man”

I took the photo accompanying this post a couple of weeks ago, after the blizzard.

(Thanks to my friend Holly, as always, for the inspiration.)