“I want to be a poet. I don't want to talk about genies in bottles anymore.” WantPoetBottlesGenies Author:Christina Aguilera
“The poet who writes "free" verse is like Robinson Crusoe on his desert island: he must do all his cooking, laundry and darning for himself. In a few exceptional cases, this manly independence produces something original and impressive, but more often the result is squalor - dirty sheets on the unmade bed and empty bottles on the unswept floor.” WritingResultsCasesProducePoetBedEmptyOriginalsIndependenceCookingDesertDirtyIslandsBottlesVersesSheetsExceptionalImpressiveManlyLaundryFree VerseSqualorRobinson CrusoeEmpty BottlesUnmade Beds Author:W. H. Auden
“The great post-Holocaust poet, Paul Celan, said that a poem is a message in a bottle sent out in the not always greatly hopeful belief that somewhere and some time it would wash up on land on heartland perhaps.” SaidBeliefLandPoetMessagesPostsHopefulBottlesHolocaustMessage In A Bottle Author:Edward Hirsch
“And Mandelstam says a poet - you go down to the shore and you see an unlikely looking from a bottle from the past, you open it. Mandelstam says, "It's okay to do so. I'm not reading someone else's mail. It was addressed to whoever found it. I found it, therefore it's addressed to me."” PastReadingFoundPoetOkayBottlesShoreMailUnlikely Author:Edward Hirsch
“My focus is on the reader and that the poet's job is not to inspire himself or herself. The poet's job is to inspire some future reader. And so, as a reader you have a task to do in finding those bottles and opening up the messages and experiencing what's in them inside of yourself.” JobsFocusInspirePoetReaderFindingsMessagesTasksOpeningBottlesOpening Up Author:Edward Hirsch