“Someone told me just recently that poets are eulogists. It's their job, to eulogize. I didn't know that, but it makes sense. Because in almost every poem of mine there is a loss.” KnowsJobsLossMinesPoetMake Sense Author:Dan Quisenberry
“I started as - well, I wanted to be Poet Laureate. And I wanted to be a naturalist. That's how I began. I didn't have any desire to go and be a scientist. Louis Leakey channeled me there. I'm delighted he did. I love science. I love analyzing and making sense of all these observations. So, it was the perfect rounding off of who I was into who I am.” WellsWantedDesirePerfectPoetScientistWho I AmObservationMake SenseDelightedAnalyzingNaturalistScience Love Author:Jane Goodall
“The art of the poem nowadays is something unstable; but at least the construction of the poem should make sense; you should know where you stand. Many questions haven't been answered as yet. Our poets may be wrong; but what can any of us do with his talent but try to develop his vision, so that through frequent failures we may learn better what we have missed in the past.” KnowsShouldTryingMayArtPastVisionTalentHavensPoetMake SenseConstructionUnstableWhere You Stand Author:William Carlos Williams
“Over many years so many poets have touched my imagination and opened paths for me - it hardly makes sense to list them. I have always read a great deal of poetry.” YearsImaginationDealsPathPoetListsMake SenseTouchedMy Imagination Author:Adrienne Rich
“I hope any poem I've ever written could stand on its own and not need to be a part of biography, critical theory or cultural studies. I don't want to give a poetry reading and have to provide the story behind the poem in order for it to make sense to an audience. I certainly don't want the poem to require a critical intermediary - a "spokescritic." I want my poems to be independently meaningful moments of power for a good reader. And that's the expectation I initially bring to other poets' writing.” WantNeedsGivingWritingMomentsStoriesOrderReadingBehindsAudienceStudyWrittenPoetTheoryReaderExpectationsCriticalMeaningfulMake SenseBiographiesPoetry ReadingCritical TheoryMeaningful Moments Author:Albert Goldbarth
“I say sometimes that I'm a poet but I work in the novel form. That's what I do. That's what makes sense to me. I think of myself as someone who makes particular interventions into genres that already exist.” ThinkingSometimesNovelPoetMake Sense Author:Douglas A. Martin
“My poems are certainly in the lyric tradition, but perhaps a reader can tell me more precisely who I am as a poet. How can I be so old and not know? I have always been deeply grateful for the urge to write, the desire to create, that's certain. Writing has always been the way I make sense of life. Perhaps my poems define me, rather than the other way around. They do constantly surprise me.” WritingDesirePoetTraditionGratefulSurpriseMake SenseSurprise Me Author:Connie Wanek
“I think that as poets, we can get away with stuff because we can ride on the melt of metaphor. We cover a lot of terrain psychically and temporally and linguistically via metaphor, and that can be a stand-in for an argument, whereas in prose, you have to make the argument, and you have to be convincing because the sequence must make sense in time and purpose.” ThinkingPurposePoetArgumentMetaphorMake SenseProseGet AwayConvincing Author:David Biespiel