“I have always wanted to play different kinds of stuff, but it's hard, first to find good material, and then to change people's perception of you so they'll let you do it. I mean, I would really like to play a poet, but once they get this notion of you as a street guy, it's hard to change that.” PeopleFirstsKindMeanDifferentHardPlayWantedGuyStuffStreetsPoetMaterialsPerceptionNotionDifferent Kinds Author:Matt Dillon
“The prose poem Walk The Red Road is great stuff and deserves to be read aloud. It compares quite favorably to The Walls Of Emerald by Li Chiang Yen, a Chinese poet of the late Tang period.” StuffWalksPoetWallPeriodsLateDeserveRedChineseCompareProseEmeralds Author:Brian Aldiss
“I don't know if I call myself a poet or not. I would like to, but I'm not really qualified to make that decision, because I come in on such a back door, that I don't know what a Robert Frost or a [John] Keats or a T.S. Eliot would really think of my stuff.” IfsThinkingKnowsStuffDecisionDoorsPoetQualifiedFrostBack DoorsEliot Author:Bob Dylan
“Poets are political, they have to be reflections of their times [because] they're living in their times... Poetry is political in that it's standing in opposition to fascism. Good poetry asks a bunch of questions and asks the audience to interact with themselves or see themselves in it; maybe you like it or you don't like it. But the fascist sort of stuff plays on your fears and tells you to jump on the party line and gives some simple excuses - blame this person.” GivingPersonsPlayPoliticalAsksStuffLinesSimplePartyAudiencePoetReflectionStandingBlameExcuseBunchOppositionPoetry IsFascismFascistsYou Like ItGood PoetryTime Poetry Author:John Cusack
“You can't criticize Bob Dylan's singing. You have to respect Billy Joel as a brilliant poet. You can't tell me there's a better rock band ever than Led Zeppelin. And if you speak during the Eagles' "Last Resort," we're done. I'm just asking for seven minutes. This stuff really matters, you know.” IfsKnowsMatterDoneLastsSpeakStuffMinutesRocksPoetBandSingingAskingSevenBrilliantCriticizeBobResortsDylanEaglesRock BandsZeppelins Author:Charlie Sheen
“The environment is becoming so much a central concern, I see environmental concerns just bleeding into poetries all over the place. My hope is that we won't have these environmental poets tucked over here and everybody else doing cool stuff with language and consciousness elsewhere, but that all of it will become one thing.” LanguageStuffConsciousnessEnvironmentOne ThingPoetBecomingConcernEnvironmentalElsewhereBleedingCool Stuff Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
“Every poet has a certain amount of "stuff." That's what you draw from for imagery. The more stuff you know well, not simply intellectually but sensually, emotionally, intimately, the wider the pool from which you draw.” KnowsWellsCertainStuffPoetAmountDrawsPoolImagery Author:Marge Piercy
“We're talking about an extremely prolific poet and songwriter and lyricist. That stuff comes off the top of her head. She [Joni Mitchell] will write exactly what she lives. If she puts some money in the soda machine, she'll write about putting money in the soda machine. "Dry Cleaner from Des Moines," on the Shadows & Light album, was about sitting next to a dry cleaner from Des Moines, playing a slot machine.” IfsWritingLightPoetryNextStuffTalkingPoetSittingShadowMachinesAlbumsDrySongwritersCleanersSodaSlot MachinesLyricistsDes MoinesDry Cleaners Author:Don Alias
“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
“The formal stuff feels old and windy. Not to say you shouldn't know prosody. But it's a wonderful time for exploratory poetics. Contemporary poets are inventing all kinds of wild, complex shapes for poetry, as we see. It's a wonderful time, less ego-centered.” KnowsFeelsKindStuffWonderfulPoetShapesEgoComplexesContemporaryAll KindsFormalInventingWindyWonderful TimesProsody Author:Anne Waldman