“Every American poet feels that the whole responsibility for contemporary poetry has fallen upon his shoulders, that he is a literary aristocracy of one.” FeelsWholeResponsibilityPoetShouldersContemporaryFallenPoeticAristocracy Author:W. H. Auden
“I think about the poet Rainer Maria Rilke who said that it's the questions that move us, not the answers. As a writer, I believe that it's our task, our responsibility, to hold the mirror up to social injustices that we see and to create a prayer of beauty. The questions serve us in that capacity.” ThinkingBelieveSaidMovingI BelieveSocialPrayerAnswersResponsibilityPoetCapacityTasksMirrorsInjusticeSocial Injustice Author:Terry Tempest Williams
“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 once gave a workshop and I asked the women poets there, If you went back to that little town you've come from - these were from small towns - would you say, I'm a poet? And one of them said, If I said I was a poet in that town, they'd think I didn't wash my windows. And that stayed with me for so long, the sense of the collective responsibility of someone as against the individual thing it takes to be a poet.” IfsThinkingLittlesLongSaidIndividualResponsibilityPoetWindowTownsCollectivesSmall TownWorkshopsLittle TownsCollective Responsibility Author:Eavan Boland