A Russian formalist once said that every great work of literature contains instructions for its own consumption. ~paraphrase from a craft talk by Pam Houston
I have an appetite for finding that perfect fit of language with the experience of life as you are having it right now. Every now and then, you can break off a piece of that and call it a poem. ~William Stafford
It is through poetry that we give name to those ideas which are—until the poem—nameless and formless, about to be birthed, but already felt. ~Audre Lorde
Once, when I was teaching in the Poets-in-the-Schools program, I asked a group of fourth graders that had been writing poems for several days, “So what is a poem?” Everyone grew respectfully thoughtful, until one voice popped out: “I don’t know what a poem is, but it makes you shut up.” ~Toi Derricotte
We think by feeling. What is there to know? ~Theodore Roethke
Life is beautiful and we’re going to die. ~Billy Collins
A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. ~Robert Frost
I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I’ll die like a poet. ~Bob Dylan
Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits. ~Carl Sandburg
There’s no money in poetry, but then there’s no poetry in money, either. ~Robert Graves
Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads. ~Marianne Moore
What I wanted to do in rock ‘n roll was merge poetry with sonic scapes, and the two people who had contributed so much to that were Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison. ~Patti Smith
English is not my native language, but I find it much closer to my heart. Mankind has not come up with ways to describe every little thing, I feel, but poetry comes quite close. There are certain things in the world and perhaps beyond it that cannot be expressed in anything less than poetry. I simply write poetry because when I’m bubbling with feelings that I cannot express, poetry provides me with a channel to break my dams and let my words flow in a beautiful catastrophe. ~Harsha Pattnaik, who is 15 years old, was published in the 2016 Rattle Young Poets Anthology
Over and over I have found that in writing, the sense of connection comes not at the point a book is published, but in the primary process of creation. When I’m writing hard, a sort of humming starts at the edge of my consciousness; earth slides away, the sky opens. I’m in, quite literally, another world. Something comes to me, through me, something sings me, hums me. When you are able to set aside your judgmental mind which limits you to what you think you can do well, you can participate in this primary creative act, can connect with this source. ~Kimberly Snow
Every time we write we define ourselves, enunciate who we are and why we exist. ~Tom Benedek, screenwriter