“I believe that it is important for the artist, painter, poet, dancer, etc. to keep in mind that it is the art that drives the art world and not the other way around. Artists and other people of intelligence have the power to bring deeper content to our culture.” PeopleWorldWayMindBelieveArtImportantArtistCultureI BelievePoetDeeperPainterDancerEtcArt World Author:Thornton Willis
“Nobody is publicly accepted as an expert on poetry unless he displays the sign of poet, mathematician, etc., but universal men want no sign and make hardly any distinction between the crafts of poet and embroiderer. Universal men are not called poets or mathematicians, etc. But they are all these things and judges of them too. No one could guess what they are, and they will talk about whatever was being talked about when they came in. One quality is not more noticeable in them than another, unless it becomes necessary to put it into practice, and then we remember it.” MenWantRememberQualityPracticePoetJudgingUniversalAcceptedCraftsExpertsDistinctionEtcDisplayMathematician Author:Blaise Pascal
“Melancholy men of all others are most witty, which causeth many times a divine ravishment, and a kinde of Enthusiasmus, which stirreth them up to bee excellent Philosophers, Poets, Prophets, etc.” MenDivinePoetPhilosopherWittyExcellentProphetEtcMelancholyBees Author:Aristotle
“Most poetry is the utterance of a man in some state of passion, love, joy, grief, rage, etc., and no doubt this is as it should be. But no man is perpetually in a passion and those states in which he is amused and amusing, detached and irreverent, if less important, are no less amusing. If there were no poets who, like Byron, express these states, Poetry would lack something.” IfsMenShouldImportantStatesJoyPassionGriefDoubtPoetRageNo DoubtEtcPoetry IsAmusingDetachedAmusedUtteranceLove PassionByronIrreverent Author:W. H. Auden
“I agree that comedy does a good job - and is often about - stepping over the line - Lenny Bruce, etc. - and that this is important for a lot of poets too. I guess I feel like there has to be depth.” FeelsDoeImportantJobsLinesComedyPoetAgreeDepthEtcGood Job Author:Rachel Zucker
“There is all this stuff about how sensitive poets are and how in touch with feelings, etc. they are, but really all we care about is language. At least in the initial stages of the process of writing the poem, though later other things start to come in, and a really good poem usually needs something more than just an interest in the material of language to mean anything to a reader.” NeedsWritingMeanFeelingsCareLanguageStuffProcessInterestStagePoetMaterialsReaderSensitiveEtcInitials Author:Matthew Zapruder
“I think that poets can say, "What we want is for everybody on earth to wake up free from fear and with access to medicine and clean water and education." But I don't think poets have any special insight on how to get there. And the 20th century is a pretty good record of that because so many of the great poets were Stalinists: Vallejo, Neruda, Eluard, Aragon, etc. They wrote their odes to Lenin and Stalin. They glorified some of the most violent and grotesque dictatorships of the 20th century. And a lot of the ones who were not Stalinists were fascists or fascist sympathizers.” ThinkingWantEarthWaterRecordsSpecialCenturyPoetWake UpMedicineCleanInsightAccessViolentEtcDictatorship20th CenturyFascistsGrotesqueGreat PoetClean WaterOdesGood RecordsLenin And Stalin Author:Robert Hass
“Social media is alluring, tempting, frustrating, etc. We mistake our interactions in social media as community, but is community possible when you don't even know what someone looks like or what his or her voice sounds like? I've enjoyed connecting with a lot of poets through social media, but do I truly know them if I haven't even met them yet?” IfsKnowsLooksSocialSoundVoiceCommunityMistakeMediaHavensPoetMetsSocial MediaEnjoyedEtcInteractionFrustratingConnectingTemptingAlluring Author:Allison Joseph