Have you ever heard a good joke? If youve ever heard someone just right, with the right pacing, then youre already on the way to poetry. Its about using words in very precise ways and using gesture. – Rita Dove
What is ironic is that Allen Ginsbergs importance was in its twilight for so many years that it took his death to bring it to the front page. He electrified an entire world! – Rita Dove
One definition of eternity is that we are not alone on this planet, that there are those whove gone before and those who will come, and that there is a community of spirits. – Rita Dove
Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things. – T.S. Eliot, Tradition and the Individual Talent, 1919