Let my life as Poet begin. I want the life of the Poet. I have labored for over twelve years, one thousand pages of prose. Now, I want the easiness of poetry. The brevity of the poem. Maxine Hong Kingston on poetry
All the modern verse plays, they're terrible they're mostly about the poetry. It's more important that the play is first. Denis Johnson on poetry
Poetry is a mixture of common sense, which not all have, with an uncommon sense, which very few have. John Masefield on poetry
Since the printing press came into being, poetry has ceased to be the delight of the whole community of man it has become the amusement and delight of the few. John Masefield on poetry
Poetry is innocent, not wise. It does not learn from experience, because each poetic experience is unique. Karl Shapiro on poetry
Poetry proceeds from the totality of man, sense, imagination, intellect, love, desire, instinct, blood and spirit together. Jacques Maritain on poetry
And inasmuch as the bridge is a symbol of all such poetry as I am interested in writing it is my present fancy that a year from now I'll be more contented working in an office than ever before. Hart Crane on poetry
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. Laura Riding on poetry
The end of poetry is not to create a physical condition which shall give pleasure to the mind... The end of poetry is not an after-effect, not a pleasurable memory of itself, but an immediate, constant and even unpleasant insistence upon itself. Laura Riding on poetry
Poetry brings all possible experience to the same degree: a degree in the consciousness beyond which the consciousness itself cannot go. Laura Riding on poetry
No art form points like poetry to this originality of language as to its essential and abiding concern. Thomas Harrison on poetry
Society's dark hull drifts further and further away. It is this place - the place of our separation, our distinction - that much of his poetry occupies. Tomas Transtromer on poetry
Poetry says the things that I can't say. I read a lot, but I never write it. Trevor McDonald on poetry
Conversation may be compared to a lyre with seven chords - philosophy, art, poetry, love, scandal, and the weather. Anna Jameson on poetry
Poetry is one of the few nasty childhood habits I've managed to grow out of. Tom Holt on poetry
I despair of ever writing excellent poetry. Isaac Rosenberg on poetry
I will not leave a corner of my consciousness covered up, but saturate myself with the strange and extraordinary new conditions of this life, and it will all refine itself into poetry later on. Isaac Rosenberg on poetry
Nobody ever told me what to read, or ever put poetry in my way. Isaac Rosenberg on poetry
If I do a poetry reading I want people to walk out and say they feel better for having been there - not because you've done a comedy performance but because you're talking about your father dying or having young children, things that touch your soul. Roger McGough on poetry
Whereas with poetry no one has to show anybody really, and you don't have to tell anyone you're doing it. Roger McGough on poetry