Poetry is fascinating. As soon as it begins the poetry has changed the thing into something extra, and somehow prose can go over into poetry. – Michael Tippett
I believe that all poetry is formal in that it exists within limits, limits that are either inherited by tradition or limits that language itself imposes. – Mark Strand
As a poet there is only one political duty, and that is to defend ones language against corruption. When it is corrupted, people lose faith in what they hear and this leads to violence. – W. H. Auden