Best Poetry Reading Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Minutes later the waitress brought back a cup the size of a soup bowl filled with steaming chocolate-flavored coffee and topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Tianna realized she hadn't eaten anything since the bite of muffin early in the morning. She sipped the brew, enjoying the rich, sweet taste, and listened to Serena recite a poem about her demon lover. It made Tianna think more than ever that Serena was some kind of witch or worse. How could she know so much about temptation and choosing between good and evil? The words sent chills through Tianna.”

Poetry Reading Serena Killingsworth Tianna Moore Mocha Stanton Serena And Stanton

Book:The Lost One

Source: The Lost One

“You're afraid of the audience, aren't you?" "Yes, but it's not stagefright. It's that I'm there as the geek. They like to watch me eat my shit. But it pays the light bill and takes me to the racetrack. I don't have any excuses about why I do it.”

Performance Poetry Reading

Book:Women

Source: Women

“Poetry reading is the chamber music of the actor's craft.”

Poetry Poetry Reading

Book:Grace

Source: Grace

“I think that is where poetry reading becomes such an individual thing. I mean I have friend who like poets who just don't say anything to me at all, I mean they seem to me rather ordinary and pedestrian.”

Thinking Mean Seems Reading Individual Poet Ordinary Say Anything Pedestrians Poetry Reading

Author:James Laughlin

“If I could take all my parts with me when I go somewhere / and not have to say to one of them, ‘No, you stay home tonight, you won’t be welcome’/ because I’m going to an all-white party where I can be gay but not Black / Or I’m going to a Black poetry reading, and half the poets are anti-homosexual / or thousands of situations where something of what I am cannot come with me / The day all the different parts of me can come along / we would have what I would call / a revolution”

“Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.”

Pain Joy Poetry Deals Wonder Poet Poetry Is Dictionary Great Poetry Joy And Pain Reading Poetry Poetry Reading

Book:The New Frontier and Sand and Foam

Source: The New Frontier and Sand and Foam

“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.”

“I do believe that one's writing life needs to be kept separate from Po-Biz. Personally, I deal with this by not attending too many poetry readings, primarily reading dead poets or poems in translation, reading Poets & Writers only once for grant/contest information before I quickly dispose of it, and not reading Poetry Daily. Ever.”

Needs Writing Believe Reading Deals Information Poet Grants Contests Writing Life Translations Attending Reading Poetry Dead Poets Poetry Reading

Author:Cate Marvin

“It's not a love of poetry readings that attracts those who do come to them but theater.”

Reading Theater Poetry Reading

Author:A. R. Ammons

“I'm a professional and I'll do anything - a poetry reading, television, cinema, anything that allows me to act.”

Reading Television Cinema Poetry Reading

Author:Peter O'Toole

“I just think that the world of workshops - I've written a poem that is a parody of workshop talk, I've written a poem that is a kind of parody of a garrulous poet at a poetry reading who spends an inordinate amount of time explaining the poem before reading it, I've written a number of satirical poems about other poets.”

Thinking World Kind Reading Numbers Written Poet Amount Explaining Workshops Parody Satirical Poetry Reading

Author:Billy Collins

“I guess I've done a lot of different kinds of performing at various times - opera singing, poetry reading, not least high school teaching - and I do enjoy it, at least sometimes. But I find it incredibly anxiety-producing and exhausting. Privacy is more congenial, and I go a little crazy if I can't spend a big chunk of every day, or almost every day, alone. Certainly I have to be alone to write.”

“Poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by singularity, it should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance.”

“Publishing a volume of verse is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.”

Source: Selected letters of Don Marquis

“I have a publishing company of books by me and books of others. It drew people to poetry readings and photo exhibitions and painting exhibitions that I've been doing for years before that.”

People Years Book Reading Company Painting Publishing Exhibitions Poetry Reading

Author:Viggo Mortensen

“I was reading poetry to my girlfriends, and they were like, you're really good. You should go to some poetry readings or something. And I eventually went and got a, you know, somewhat of a name for myself and a little bit of a following.”

Knows Should Littles Reading Names Bits Like You Little Bit Following Girlfriend My Girlfriend Reading Poetry Poetry Reading

Author:Jill Scott

“All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.”

Writing Book Feelings Poetry Reading Spring Genuine Reading Poetry Poetry Reading

Book:The Prose of Oscar Wilde

Source: The Prose of Oscar Wilde

“We have seen the best minds of our generation destroyed by boredom at poetry readings.”

Mind Reading Generations Destroyed Boredom Our Generation Poetry Reading

Book:San Francisco Poems

Source: San Francisco Poems

“If I'm still wistful about On the Road, I look on the rest of the Kerouac oeuvre--the poems, the poems!--in horror. Read Satori in Paris lately? But if I had never read Jack Kerouac's horrendous poems, I never would have had the guts to write horrendous poems myself. I never would have signed up for Mrs. Safford's poetry class the spring of junior year, which led me to poetry readings, which introduced me to bad red wine, and after that it's all just one big blurry condemned path to journalism and San Francisco.”

Ifs Writing Years Looks Stills Bigs Reading Class Path Horror Spring Red Wine Journalism Paris Just One Guts San Francisco Juniors Red Wine Blurry Junior Year Poetry Reading Satori

Author:Sarah Vowell

“Poetry is ordinary language raised to the Nth power. Poetry is boned with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words.”

Ideas Together Poetry Language Emotion Poet Ordinary Tough Skins Raised Poetry Is Delicate Reading Poetry Poetry By Famous Poets Poetry By Poets Poetry Reading Tough Skin

Author:Paul Engle

“The writing of a poem is like a child throwing stones into a mineshaft. You compose first, then you listen for the reverberation.”

Writing Firsts Children Poetry Stones Throwing Writing Poetry Reverberation Poetry Reading Throwing Stones

Author:James Fenton

“Poetry is everywhere; it just needs editing.”

Needs Poetry Poetry Is Editing Great Poetry Reading Poetry Poetry Reading

Book:The route as briefed

Source: The route as briefed

“I never really liked poetry readings; I liked to read poetry by myself, but I liked singing, chanting my lyrics to this jazz group.”

Reading Groups Singing Jazz Chanting Poetry Reading

Author:Leonard Cohen

“Poetry is ordinary language raised to the Nth power.”

Poetry Language Poet Ordinary Raised Poetry Is Delicate Reading Poetry Power Of Language Language And Power Poetry By Poets Poetry Reading Tough Skin

Author:Paul Engle

“Of course a poem is a two-way street. No poem is any good if it doesn't suggest to the reader things from his own mind and recollection that he will read into it, and will add to what the poet has suggested. But I do think poetry readings are very important.”

Ifs Thinking Way Mind Two Important Courses Reading Streets Poet Reader Add Two Ways Recollection Two Way Street Poetry Reading

Author:James Laughlin

“If I do a poetry reading I want people to walk out and say they feel better for having been there - not because you've done a comedy performance but because you're talking about your father dying or having young children, things that touch your soul”

People Ifs Want Feels Children Soul Done Young Reading Father Walks Talking Comedy Dying Performances Your Soul Feel Better Young Children Poetry Reading

Author:Roger McGough

“Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.”

Poetry Language Powerful Most Powerful Poetry Is Reading Poetry Distillation Poetry Reading

Author:Rita Dove

“Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.”

Poetry Reading Quotes

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Poetry Reading Quotes