Quotes About Poetry

I think poetry has lost an awful lot of its muscle because nobody knows any. Nobody has to memorize poetry.

The more poetry you have in the head, the more poetry you will understand because you will be getting to the roots of what it is that makes people write poetry at all.

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

I've always written, all my life, and when I was very young I developed an interest in poetry.

That is what I did with Jack, and that's why he liked to do the readings with me because he knew I was there for him, and for our ability to blend the poetry and the music.

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.

A poem in form still has to have voice, gesture, a sense of discovery, a metaphoric connection, as any poetry does.

If it is an imperfect word, no external circumstance can heighten its value as poetry.

There is a wonderful Hungarian literature, especially in lyric poetry.

I think that it's more likely that in my 60s and 70s I will be writing poetry rather than fiction.

I don't think the creative writing industry has helped American poetry.

To know anything of a poet but his poetry is, so far as the poetry is concerned, to know something that may be entertaining, even delightful, but is certainly inessential.

I definitely wish to distinguish American poetry from British or other English language poetry.

It is true that short forms of poetry have been cultivated in the Far East more than in modern Europe; but in all European literature short forms of poetry are to be found - indeed quite as short as anything in Japanese.

Let me read you some of my poetry. My poetry just takes me to another level.

In fact a lot of them I think are absolute baloney. Those Charles Olsens and people like that. At first I was interested in seeing what they were up to, what they were doing, why they were doing it. They never moved me in the way that one is moved by true poetry.

To have great poets, there must be great audiences.

Poets are Damned... but See with the Eyes of Angels.

Amy Winehouse and Paul Weller are examples of poets, I think.

I'm inspired by the poets, so I'm always going to give in that direction, rather than in any other. It's the making of me... and also the downfall of me.

The historical legacy of 'The Best American Poetry' is they've had very few editors who were not white. They've had very few instances where they've selected poems by non-white poets.

Poets are seen as the caretakers of language, so working with words no matter what the form is what we do.

Don't call my lyrics poetry. It's an insult to real poets.

I'm ashamed to admit that I very seldom read poetry, even though many of my friends are poets.