“A poet dares to be just so clear and no clearer; he approaches lucid ground warily, like a mariner who is determined not to scrape his bottom on anything solid. A poet's pleasure is to withhold a little of his meaning, to intensify by mystification. He unzips the veil from beauty, but does not remove it. A poet utterly clear is a trifle glaring.” LittlesDoePoetryPleasureClearPoetApproachBottomDareDeterminedRemoveVeilsTriflesMariners Author:E. B. White
“I approach poetry and spirituality like literary nitroglycerin -- a little can do a lot and you better damn well be careful with it.” WellsLittlesPoetrySpiritualityCan DoApproachCarefulDamnBe Careful Book:The Cold Dish: A Longmire Mystery Source: The Cold Dish: A Longmire Mystery
“When a philosopher, scientist, or psychologist discusses the discrepancy between the actual and the ideal, he or she attempts to convince us with the tools of discursive thought ... An artist does it differently ... their primary approach is different, even though both groups, if you will, are investigating the actual, the ideal, and the discrepancy in between.” IfsDoeDifferentPoetryArtistLiteratureGroupsApproachIdealsToolsScientistPhilosopherPrimariesConvincePsychologistInvestigatingDiscrepanciesConvince UsDiscrepancies Between Author:Stephen Dobyns
“Poetry is important. No less than science, it seeks a hold upon reality, and the closeness of its approach is the test of its success.” ImportantRealityPoetryApproachTestsPoetry IsCloseness Author:Babette Deutsch
“Poetry is, above all, an approach to the truth of feeling. A fine poem will seize your imagination intellectually - that is, when you reach it, you will reach it intellectually too - but the way is through emotion, through what we call feeling.” WayFeelingsPoetryImaginationEmotionFineApproachPoetry Is Author:Muriel Rukeyser
“A lady with whom I was riding in the forest said to me that the woods always seemed to her to wait, as if the genii who inhabit them suspend their deeds until the wayfarer had passed onward; a thought which poetry has celebrated in the dance of the fairies, which breaks off on the approach of human feet.” IfsHumansSaidPoetryWaitingBreakFeetApproachDeedsWoodsForestsFairyRidingFaerieBreak Off Book:The Annotated Emerson Source: The Annotated Emerson