“A poet is the most unpoetical of anything in existence; because he has no identity he is continually informing and filling some other body.” BodyPoetryLiteratureExistenceIdentityPoetFillingInforming Book:The Works of John Keats: With an Introduction and Bibliography Source: The Works of John Keats: With an Introduction and Bibliography
“Once I started writing all the time and interacting with poets, I made a conscious decision to identify myself as a poet. It's funny how much a single word can provide focus and direction. As soon as I claimed that identity, I started clearing more and more space for poetry in my life and applying poetic tools to other areas of my life. The world became a different place, and I witnessed it through different kinds of eyes.” WorldWritingKindMadeDifferentEyePoetrySpaceDecisionFocusIdentityPoetConsciousAreasToolsPoeticDifferent KindsDifferent PlaceInteractingClearingSingle Word Author:Tracy K. Smith
“I am a Black Lesbian Feminist Warrior Poet Mother, stronger for all my identities, and I am indivisible.” MotherBlackIdentityPoetStrongerFeministWarriorIndivisible Author:Audre Lorde
“Chloe Honum's brilliant first book The Tulip-Flame traces an identity forming within radically divergent but interlocking systems: a family traumatized by the mother's suicide, a failed relationship, the practice of ballet, a garden-each strict, exacting. And with 'a crow's sky-knowing mind,' Honum in every case transfigures emotion by way of elegant language and formal restraint. Chloe Honum is 'one astounding flame' of a poet, and I predict a long-lasting one.” WayMindFirstsLongBookMotherLanguageEmotionPracticeCasesKnowingSkyIdentityPoetGardenSuicideBrilliantFlamesLastingBalletFormalStrictRestraintElegantCrowDivergentChloeLong LastingFailed Relationship Author:Claudia Emerson
“As I look over my work, I mean every time I look over my early work, I see, yes, I could do that then and then I could do that and that... That may be the hardest thing for a writer, at least for a poet, to tell what the identity of his work is.” LooksMayMeanIdentityPoetHardestHardest ThingEarly Work Author:Kenneth Koch
“One of Still Lifes many achievements is its paradoxical mix of intensity and stillness. Alexander Longs visions of landscape, identity and "History itself, a joke that no one gets" are simultaneously meditative and alert, restless and focused. This is a smart, compassionate poet. Still Life is a mesmerizing new book.” StillsBookLife IsVisionIdentityPoetAchievementSmartJokesFocusedLandscapeIntensityCompassionateStillnessRestlessParadoxicalNew BooksStill LifeMesmerizing Author:Terrance Hayes
“I think it's the responsibility of every human being, not just those who wear the identity of poet, activist, voter, religious person... it's the responsibility of every person. Our responsibility is to use our intelligence as clearly and coherently as we possibly can.” ThinkingHumansPersonsUseReligiousHuman BeingsResponsibilityIdentityPoetActivistVotersReligious Person Author:John Trudell
“I think that what's happening today, with all the young poets rushing from one college to another, lecturing at the drop of a hat and so on, is not too good; I think it might have a bad effect on a great many of the young poets. They - to quote Mark Twain - "swap juices" a little too much, so that they are in danger of losing their own identity and don't give themselves time enough in which to work out what's really of importance to them - they're too busy.” ThinkingGivingLittlesEnoughMightTodayYoungToo MuchEffectsDangerIdentityCollegePoetLosingHappeningsImportanceMarkBusyWork OutGreat MenHatsJuiceToo BusyRushingLecturing Author:Conrad Aiken
“My sense of the poet is classical - the poet is one who makes poems. In each book, I develop and repeat certain general themes - time, place, memory, God, history, class, race, beauty, love, poetry, identity. The core identity is the poet making the poems.” BookMemoriesIdentityPoetLove Poetry Author:Lawrence Joseph
“Because so many poets have chosen a political idiom right now in the US and so many poets have assigned value and inherent knowledge to their racial identity and used that as a form of argumentation, I'm thinking now's a good time to buy low for my own poems and write poems that are deeply in the interior and the psyche. There are plenty of people out there working on subjects of political poetry, partisan poetry, all the way through to crossing the threshold of propaganda. I start thinking now's a good time for me to start writing about the myths of my own psyche.” PeopleThinkingWritingPoliticalValuesIdentityPoetMythChosenPlentyPropagandaGood TimesIdiom Author:David Biespiel