I'm fascinated by rap and by hip-hop. I think there's a lot of poetry in it. There's a lot of anger, a lot of social energy in it. And I think you'd better listen to it pretty carefully, 'cause it's important. John F. Kerry
If the object of poetry is, to make men, then poetry is the heir of prophecy. Muhammad Iqbal
I certainly derived my skills as a prose writer from my scrutiny of poetry and of the individual word. But schools don't do things like that anymore - tracking words down to their roots. Camille Paglia
Sometimes the beauty is easy. Sometimes you don't have to try at all. Sometimes you can hear the wind blow in a handshake. Sometimes there's poetry written right on the bathroom wall. Ani DiFranco
I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry that is, prose = words in their best order - poetry = the best words in the best order. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
But the gravest difficulty, and perhaps the most important, in poetry meant solely for recitation, is the difficulty of achieving verbal beauty, or rather of making verbal beauty tell. Lascelles Abercrombie
Those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded. Herbert Spencer
I want to branch out. I want to write. I write poetry. I want to see my children grow up well. Annie Lennox
Poetry is emotion put into measure. The emotion must come by nature, but the measure can be acquired by art. Thomas Hardy
Poetry involves the mysteries of the irrational perceived through rational words. Vladimir Nabokov
Is there any purpose to translating poetry? A poem does not contain information of importance, like a signpost or a warning notice. James Buchan
Plot, rules, nor even poetry, are not half so great beauties in tragedy or comedy as a just imitation of nature, of character, of the passions and their operations in diversified situations. Horace Walpole
Well, I still write poetry, but I wouldn't call myself a poet. David Duchovny
The poetry of a people comes from the deep recesses of the unconscious, the irrational and the collective body of our ancestral memories. Margaret Walker
I was a 16-year-old girl at one point, so of course I wrote poetry. Elizabeth Edwards
When you're going through something, whether it's a wonderful thing like having a child or a sad thing like losing somebody, you often feel like 'Oh my God, I'm so overwhelmed I'm dealing with this huge thing on my own.' In fact, poetry's a nice reminder that, no, everybody goes through it. These are universal experiences. Caroline Kennedy
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. Amanda Seyfried
There is little premium in poetry in a world that thinks of Pound and Whitman as a weight and a sampler, not an Ezra, a Walt, a thing of beauty, a joy forever. Anna Quindlen