Poetry Quotes

We are looking to brands for poetry and for spirituality, because we're not getting those things from our communities or from each other.

If a poem is not memorable, there's probably something wrong. One of the problems of free verse is that much of the free verse poetry is not memorable.

If we ask a vague question, such as, 'What is poetry?' we expect a vague answer, such as, 'Poetry is the music of words,' or 'Poetry is the linguistic correction of disorder.'

Whereas with poetry no one has to show anybody really, and you don't have to tell anyone you're doing it.

Poetry has been to me its own exceeding great reward; it has given me the habit of wishing to discover the good and beautiful in all that meets and surrounds me.

There are so many things that poetry is about, one of which is memory.

On the other hand, if there's an underlying core of poetry that I go to, I go to the sea. I've lived on the sea all my life. I live on the sea in Cape Breton.

With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.

However, I learned something. I thought that if the young person, the student, has poetry in him or her, to offer them help is like offering a propeller to a bird.

I realized poetry's the thing that I can do 'cause I can stick at it and work with tremendous intensity.

Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.

To feel most beautifully alive means to be reading something beautiful, ready always to apprehend in the flow of language the sudden flash of poetry.

I was apprehensive. I feared every time I talked about poetry, it would be filtered through the lens of race, sex, and age.

I certainly can't speak for all cultures or all societies, but it's clear that in America, poetry serves a very marginal purpose. It's not part of the cultural mainstream.

There's one of my new poems actually - is a good example of where my poetry has ended up. My earlier river poetry was more like a cross between Shelley and Dylan Thomas.

I don't think American poetry has gotten any better in the past 35 years. Oddly enough, creative writing programs seem to have been good for fiction, and I would not have predicted that.

If you go into a bar in most places in America and even say the word poetry, you'll probably get beaten up. But poetry is a really strong, beautiful form to me, and a lot of innovation in language comes from poetry.

I thought we were gonna open up the world of poetry and music to all kinds of things, and yet, I can't really think of anyone who's done anything like it since.

I have written some songs, but I would really call what I've done poetry at the end of the day, because I'll sit with my guitar for hours and hours on end for, like, a week and then I won't touch it for a month. I also just have no confidence. And you know what? I don't have time, because I'd rather be doing other things, like knitting.

I think poetry is best read to oneself.

I'm not really quiet or shy. Ask any of my friends! But I always ground my poetry in life itself. Poetry is an art of language, though, so I am always aware of every word's meaning, or multiple meanings.

The novel is born of disillusionment; the poem, of despair.

I don't know a better preparation for life than a love of poetry and a good digestion.

I think the term poet is a very exalted term and should be applied to a man at the end of his work. When he looks back over the body of his work and he's written poetry then let the verdict be that he's a poet.

Children seem naturally drawn to poetry - it's some combination of the rhyme, rhythm, and the words themselves.

No poem is easily grasped; so why should any reader expect fast results?

To a poet the mere making of a poem can seem to solve the problem of truth, but only a problem of art is solved in poetry.

Is there any purpose to translating poetry? A poem does not contain information of importance, like a signpost or a warning notice.

The poetry community here has been extraordinarily welcoming.

I'd never really been content with just churning out these slim volumes every three or four years. I've always tried to think of poetry as an active ingredient in the language rather than just something that appears between the covers of thin books.