He fertilizes a phrase or a line of poetry for weeks and then gives birth to it in a speech. – John Colville
I write poetry in order to live more fully. – Judith Rodriguez
A poets work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep. – Salman Rushdie
The poet doesnt invent. He listens. – Jean Cocteau
A poets autobiography is his poetry. Anything else is just a footnote. – Yevgeny Yevtushenko
A poem can have an impact, but you cant expect an audience to understand all the nuances. – Douglas Dunn
You dont have to suffer to be a poet adolescence is enough suffering for anyone. – John Ciardi
The poem is a little myth of mans capacity of making life meaningful. And in the end, the poem is not a thing we see-it is, rather, a light by which we may see-and what we see is life. – Robert Penn Warren
Everyone thinks theyre going to write one book of poems or one novel. – Marilyn Hacker
You dont make a poem with ideas, but with words. – Stephane Mallarme
Therell always be working people in my poems because I grew up with them, and I am a poet of memory. – Philip Levine
You dont help people in your poems. Ive been trying to help people all my life – thats my trouble. – Charles Olson
However, if a poem can be reduced to a prose sentence, there cant be much to it. – James Schuyler
When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of mans concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. – John F. Kennedy
Listen, real poetry doesnt say anything it just ticks off the possibilities. Opens all doors. You can walk through anyone that suits you. – Jim Morrison
If my poetry aims to achieve anything, its to deliver people from the limited ways in which they see and feel. – Jim Morrison
I dont think Ive ever read poetry, ever. – Eminem
Im sorry, man, but Ive got magic. Ive got poetry in my fingertips. Most of the time – and this includes naps – Im an F-18, bro. And I will destroy you in the air. I will deploy my ordinance to the ground. – Charlie Sheen
Its not easy to define poetry. – Bob Dylan
As things are, and as fundamentally they must always be, poetry is not a career, but a mugs game. No honest poet can ever feel quite sure of the permanent value of what he has written: He may have wasted his time and messed up his life for nothing. – T. S. Eliot
