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Poetry Quotes

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Poetry Quotes

“Kierkegaard was once asked, 'What is a poet?' He answered that a poet was an unhappy man whose moans and cries of anguish were transformed into ravishing music.”

Men Poetry Cry Poet Unhappy Transformed Anguish

Author:Langdon Brown Gilkey

“ZENITH / NOON beats out / on its solar anvil / the rays of light”

Light Poetry Beats Rays Noon Anvils Rays Of Light Zenith

Author:Sonia Delaunay

“Our earliest poets were shamans. Today, as in the earliest times, true shamans are poets of consciousness who know the power of song and story to teach and to heal.”

Knows Stories Today Poetry Song Consciousness Teach Poet Heal

Author:Robert Moss

“We need a safe place, a reserve of truth, a place where words kindle ideas and set ideas sparking off in others, a word sanctuary. Poetry is this gathering place of words.”

Needs Ideas Poetry Safe Poetry Is Reserves Gathering Sanctuary Kindles Safe Places Sparking Gathering Places

Author:Allison Mackie

“How do you define a poet? It's very simple. Anyone declaring that he is a poet, is a poet.”

Poetry Simple Poet Declaring

Author:Billy Cannon

“Poetry, even when apparently most fantastic, is always a revolt against artifice, a revolt, in a sense, against actuality. It speaks of what seems fantastic and unreal to those who have lost the simple intuitions which are the test of reality; and, as it is often found at war with its age, so it makes no account of history, which is fabled by the daughters of memory.”

War Reality Seems Age Poetry Found Lost Speak Memories Simple Daughter Tests Accounts Intuition Fantastic Revolt Unreal Actuality Artifice

Book:Delphi Complete Works of James Joyce (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of James Joyce (Illustrated)

“A satirical poet is the check of the laymen on bad priests.”

Poetry Poet Checks Priests Satirical Layman

Book:The Works of John Dryden, Vol.2: Top English Literature

Source: The Works of John Dryden, Vol.2: Top English Literature

“Men of real talents in Arms have commonly approved themselves patrons of the liberal arts and friends to the poets, of their own as well as former times. In some instances by acting reciprocally, heroes have made poets, and poets heroes.”

Men Wells Art Made Real Poetry Acting Talent Poet Arms Hero Instance Former Approved Patron Liberal Arts Real Talent

Book:George Washington Remembers: Reflections on the French and Indian War

Source: George Washington Remembers: Reflections on the French and Indian War

“Poetry must be simple, sensuous, or impassioned.”

Poetry Simple Sensuous Impassioned

Book:Emma Lazarus: Selected Poems and Other Writings

Source: Emma Lazarus: Selected Poems and Other Writings

“If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.”

“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

“It ["The Ancient Mariner"] is marvellous in its mastery over that delightfully fortuitous inconsequence that is the adamantine logic of dreamland.”

Poetry Logic Ancient Mastery Marvellous Mariners Fortuitous Dreamland

Book:The Complete Writings of James Russell Lowell

Source: The Complete Writings of James Russell Lowell

“Never did Poesy appear So full of heaven to me, as when I saw how it would pierce through pride and fear To the lives of coarsest men.”

Men Poetry Heaven Saws Pride Pierce

Book:The poetical works of James Russell Lowell

Source: The poetical works of James Russell Lowell

“It is clear that a poem may be improperly brief. Undue brevity degenerates into mere epigrammatism. A very short poem, while now and then producing a brilliant or vivid, never produces a profound or enduring, effect. There must be the steady pressing down of the stamp upon the wax.”

May Poetry Clear Effects Produce Mere Profound Endure Brilliant Steady Now And Then Stamps Vivid Degenerates Brevity

Book:Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Essays, Literary Studies, Criticism, Cryptography & Autography, Translations, Letters and Other Non-Fiction Works: The Philosophy of Composition, The Rationale of Verse, The Poetic Principle, Old English Poetry, Maelzel's Chess Player, Eureka, The Literati of New York, Fifty Suggestions, Exordium, Marginalia…

Source: Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Essays, Literary Studies, Criticism, Cryptography & Autography, Translations, Letters and Other Non-Fiction Works: The Philosophy of Composition, The Rationale of Verse, The Poetic Principle, Old English Poetry, Maelzel's Chess Player, Eureka, The Literati of New York, Fifty Suggestions, Exordium, Marginalia…

“Melancholy is ... the most legitimate of all the poetical tones.”

Poetry Tone Melancholy

Book:Edgar Allan Poe's Complete Poetical Works

Source: Edgar Allan Poe's Complete Poetical Works

“'Therefore' is a word the poet must not know.”

Knows Poetry Poet Sarcastic Poetic

Author:Andre Gide

“The white light of truth, in traversing the many sided transparent soul of the poet, is refracted into iris-hued poetry.”

Soul Light Poetry White Poet Transparent White Light Irises

Book:Essays: Moral, Political and Aesthetic

Source: Essays: Moral, Political and Aesthetic

“Admittedly or not, conscious or unconscious, the poetic state, a transcendent experience of life, is what the public is fundamentally seeking through love, crime, drugs, war, or insurrection.”

War States Life Is Poetry Crime Drug Conscious Seeking Unconscious Poetic Transcendent War On Drugs Insurrection

Book:The Theater and Its Double

Source: The Theater and Its Double

“Poetry never loses its appeal. Sometimes its audience wanes and sometimes it swells like a wave. But the essential mystery of being human is always going to engage and compel us. We're involved in a mystery. Poetry uses words to put us in touch with that mystery. We're always going to need it.”

Needs Humans Sometimes Use Poetry Loses Audience Mystery Involved Essentials Wave Appeals Being Human

Author:Edward Hirsch

“A poet is wounded into speech, and he examines these wounds, meticulously, to discover how to heal them. The bad poet harangues at the pain and yowls at the weapons that lacerate him; the great poet explores the inflamed lips of ruined flesh with ice-caked fingers, glittering and precise; but ultimately his poem is the echoing, dual voice reporting the damages.”

Pain Poetry Voice Poet Speech Weapons Fingers Lips Flesh Wounds Heal Ice Damage Wounded Precise Ruined Great Poet

Author:Samuel R. Delany

“I've had people explain to me what one of my poems meant, and I've been surprised that it means that to them. If a person can use a poem of mine to interpret her life or his life, good. I can't control that. Nor would I want to.”

People Ifs Want Mean Persons I Can Use Poetry Mines Good Life Interpreting

Author:Maya Angelou

“Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that's what the poet does.”

Thinking World Doe Lying Poetry Night Time Literature Lines Party Poet Expression Bed Poetry Is Poetry By Famous Poets Poetry By Poets What Is Poetry

Author:Allen Ginsberg

“Everybody can write poetry, just like everybody knows how to make love.”

Knows Writing Poetry Know How Making Love Love Poetry

Author:Gao Xingjian

“Poems allow us not only to bear the tally and toll of our transience, but to perceive, within their continually surprising abundance, a path through the grief of that insult into joy.”

Joy Poetry Grief Path Bears Perceive Abundance Insult Surprising Tolls Transience

Book:Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World

Source: Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World

“I approach poetry and spirituality like literary nitroglycerin -- a little can do a lot and you better damn well be careful with it.”

Wells Littles Poetry Spirituality Can Do Approach Careful Damn Be Careful

Book:The Cold Dish: A Longmire Mystery

Source: The Cold Dish: A Longmire Mystery

“Poetry is the one thing that isn't contaminated, the one thing that isn't part of the game.”

Poetry Games One Thing Poetry Is

Author:Roberto Bolano

“Joy is a part of my process. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that poetry, as a practice, necessitates a sense of joy. It's exhilarating to come into contact with the things we write into being. And a real sense of play and abandon even when we are relying on hard-won technique, and even when the aim is deadly serious. How often do we get the excuse to stop, think, and then stop thinking altogether and try to listen to what sits behind our outside of our thoughts? Poets are lucky.”

Thinking Writing Trying Real Hard Play Facts Joy Poetry Process Behinds Practice Serious Poet Lucky Aim Excuse Technique Contact Abandon Our Thoughts Exhilarating

Author:Tracy K. Smith

“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.”

World Writing Kind Made Different Eye Poetry Space Decision Focus Identity Poet Conscious Areas Tools Poetic Different Kinds Different Place Interacting Clearing Single Word

Author:Tracy K. Smith

“Often it is a moment rather than an event that makes a poem.”

Moments Poetry Events

Author:Tracy K. Smith

“the ordinary man's experience is chaotic, irregular, fragmentary. [He] falls in love or reads Spinoza, and these two experiences have nothing to do with each other, or with the noise of the typewriter, or the smell of cooking; in the mind of the poet these experiences are always forming new wholes”

Men Mind Art Two Poetry Fall Poet Ordinary Cooking Falling In Love Smell Noise Chaotic Typewriters Ordinary Man Spinoza

Book:The Sacred Wood and Major Early Essays

Source: The Sacred Wood and Major Early Essays

“Baby, I have no idea how this will end. Maybe the equator will fall like a hula hoop from the earth's hips and our mouths will freeze mid-kiss on our 80th anniversary or maybe tomorrow my absolute insanity combined with the absolute obstacle course of your communication skills will leave us like a love letter in a landfill. But whatever, however, whenever this ends I want you to know that right now, I love you forever.”

“This is my heartbeat like yours, it is a hatchet It can build a house or tear one down.”

Inspirational Poetry House Tears Like You Heartbeat Hatchet

Author:Andrea Gibson

“You never wish on shooting stars. You wish on the ones that have the courage to shine where they are.”

Inspirational Poetry Wish Stars Shining Shooting Shooting Star

Book:Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

Source: Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“Last night I saw your ghost pedalling a bicycle with a basket towards a moon as full as my heavy head and I wanted nothing more than to be sitting in that basket like ET with my glowing heart glowing right through my chest and my glowing finger pointing in the direction of our home.”

Inspirational Heart Home Wanted Lasts Poetry Night Saws Moon Sitting Fingers Heavy Ghost Chests Pointing Last Night Bicycle Glowing Baskets Pointing Fingers

Author:Andrea Gibson

“I'm never gonna wait that extra twenty minutes to text you back and I'm never gonna play hard to get when I know your life has been hard enough already.”

Knows Inspirational Has Beens Hard Enough Play Poetry Waiting Minutes Twenties Extras Play Hard Enough Already

Author:Andrea Gibson

“Cause I might be naked and lonely Shaking branches for bones But I'm still time zones away From who I was the day before we met You were the first mile Where my heart broke a sweat And I wish you were here I wish you'd never left But mostly I wish you well I wish you my very very best.”

Source: Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“You panic button collector. You clock of beautiful ticks. You run out the door if you need to. You flock to the front row of your own class. You feather everything until you know you can always, always shake like a leaf on my family tree and know you belong here. You belong here and everything you feel is okay. Everything you feel is okay.”

Ifs Knows Inspirational Needs Feels Running Beautiful Poetry Class Doors Tree Fronts My Family Okay Clock Shakes Panic Buttons Leafs Feathers Flocks Collectors Tick

Author:Andrea Gibson

“My heart is still a leather jacket I am waiting to give to someone sweet.”

Inspirational Giving Heart Stills Poetry Waiting Sweet My Heart Jackets Leather Leather Jackets

Author:Andrea Gibson

“In your arms I forget what the yarn knows of sweaters. I forget how to hold myself together. So if I unfold now like a love letter tell me you'll write back soon. Tell me you'll still come untethered.”

Ifs Knows Inspirational Writing Stills Together Poetry Forget Arms Letters Sweaters Love Letter Yarn

Author:Andrea Gibson

“I'm not lookin' for someone who can save me. Life rafts might keep you afloat but they rarely get you anywhere and I've got places I wanna go. So break me in two, peel back my rib cage and cover every page of my heart with love poems you will burn someday.”

Inspirational Heart Two Might Poetry Break My Heart Pages Someday Cages Love Poems Save Me Ribs Rib Cage

Author:Andrea Gibson

“So guess what, if I ever have my own team I am picking everyone first even the worst kid and the kid with the stutter like a skipping record 'cause I know all of us are scratched, even if you can't hear it when we speak.”

Ifs Knows Inspirational Firsts Kids Poetry Speak Causes My Own Records Team Worst What If

Author:Andrea Gibson

“And we were Banksy on an overpass in New Orleans spray-painting porch lights on the hurricane. We were welcome mats for the un-forgiven. We never sold our windpipes to make a living. We were the letters sent to the wrong address, but opened anyway. We opened anyway.”

Inspirational Light Poetry Painting Letters Welcome Addresses Forgiven New Orleans Hurricanes Spray Porch

Author:Andrea Gibson

“A poet is a man who puts up a ladder to a star and climbs it while playing a violin.”

Men Poetry Stars Poet Climbs Ladders Violin

Author:Edmond de Goncourt

“I like poems you can tack all over with a hammer and there are no hollow places.”

Poetry Hammers Hollow

Author:John Ashbery

“Poetry has been the guardian angel of humanity in all ages.”

Has Beens Age Poetry Humanity Angel Guardian Guardian Angel

Author:Alphonse de Lamartine

“Poetry is the morning dream of great minds.”

Mind Dream Poetry Morning Poetry Is Great Minds

Book:Memoirs of Celebrated Characters

Source: Memoirs of Celebrated Characters

“Verses devoid of substance, melodious trifles. [Lat., Versus inopes rerum, nugaeque canorae.]”

Poetry Substance Verses Versus Trifles

Author:Horace

“A comic matter cannot be expressed in tragic verse. [Lat., Versibus exponi tragicis res comica non vult.]”

Matter Poetry Comic Tragic Verses

Author:Horace

“What makes poetry? A full heart, brimful of one noble passion.”

Heart Poetry Passion Noble Full Hearts

Book:The Wisdom of Goethe

Source: The Wisdom of Goethe

“All lyrical work must, as a whole, be perfectly intelligible, but in some particulars a little unintelligible.”

Littles Whole Poetry Lyrical

Book:Delphi Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Illustrated)