Poetry is the journal of the sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air. Poetry is a search for syllables to shoot at the barriers of the unknown and the unknowable. Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away. – Carl Sandburg, Poetry Considered

But at the beginning it was clear to me that concrete poetry was peculiarly suited for using in public settings. This was my idea, but of course I never really much got the chance to do it. – Ian Hamilton Finlay

A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself. – E.M. Forster, Two Cheers for Democracy, 1951