Poet Quotes - Page 38

• The greatest poem ever known Is one all poets have outgrown: The poetry, innate, untold, Of being only four years old.

  Christopher Morley

  Children, Years, Childhood

  Christopher Morley (2007). “Chimneysmoke”, Wildside Press LLC

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• For sure I once thought of myself as the poet who would save the ordinary from oblivion.

  Philip Levine

  Sea, Ordinary, Oblivion

  Philip Levine (2002). “So ask: essays, conversations, and interviews”, Univ of Michigan Pr

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• But I'm too old to be written about as a young poet.

  Philip Levine

  Young, Written

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• I was very lucky to have a mother who encouraged me to become a poet.

  Philip Levine

  Mother, Lucky

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• Poets are immersed in process, and I mean process not as an amorphous blur but as a discipline. The hard work of writing has taught me that in matters of the heart, such as writing, or faith, there is no right or wrong way to do it, but only the way of your life. Just paying attention will teach you what bears fruit and what doesn't. But it will be necessary to revise--to doodle, scratch out, erase, even make a mess of things--in order to make it come out right.

  Kathleen Norris

  Hard Work, Writing, Heart

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• Dream study impacts culture. We are put in touch with the inner poet who dreams. We hear our inner, subjective response to the outer world. That helps spiritualize our lives.

  Henry Reed

  Dream, Impact, Culture

  Henry Reed (2005). “Dream Medicine: Learning How to Get Help from Our Dreams”, p.266, We Publish Books

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• It is the business of a comic poet to paint the vices and follies of human kind.

  William Congreve

  Business, Kindness, Vices

  'The Double Dealer' (1694) epistle dedicatory

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• Religion, mysticism and magic all spring from the same basic 'feeling' about the universe: a sudden feeling of meaning, which human beings sometimes 'pick up' accidentally, as your radio might pick up some unknown station. Poets feel that we are cut off from meaning by a thick, lead wall, and that sometimes for no reason we can understand the wall seems to vanish and we are suddenly overwhelmed with a sense of the infinite interestingness of things.

  Colin Wilson

  Wall, Spring, Cutting

  Colin Wilson (1971). “The Occult: A History”, Vintage

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• Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. There is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, only to discover what is already there.

  Henry Miller

  Kings, Men, Profound

  Henry Miller (1964). “Henry Miller on Writing”, New Directions Publishing

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• We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, only to discover what is already there.

  Henry Miller

  Kings, Musician, Creation

  Henry Miller (1964). “Henry Miller on Writing”, New Directions Publishing

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• Philip Larkin has a tough honesty and sense of humor that I find irresistible, as a contemporary poet.

  Robert Morgan

  Honesty, Tough, Sense Of Humor

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• Listen to these young poets and you'll discover the voice of the present and hear the voice of the future before the future is even here.

  Philip Levine

  Voice, Young

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• I pulled a book by Robinson Jeffers off the shelf one day. It was powerfully moving. Tears ran down my face. That's when I became a poet.

  William Everson

  Moving, Book, Poetry

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• The poet speaks adequately only when he speaks somewhat wildly... not with intellect alone, but with intellect inebriated by nectar.

  Henry Miller

  Poetry, Speak, Nectar

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• If the poet can no longer speak for society, but only for himself, then we are at the last ditch.

  Henry Miller

  Writing, Lasts, Speak

  Henry Miller (1962). “The Time of the Assassins: A Study of Rimbaud”, p.33, New Directions Publishing

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• I am a revolutionary, so my son can be a farmer, so his son can be a poet.

  John Adams

  Son, Revolutionary, Farmers

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• Turn pimp, flatterer, quack, lawyer, parson, be chaplain to an atheist, or stallion to an old woman, anything but a poet; for a poet is worse, more servile, timorous and fawning than any I have named.

  William Congreve

  Atheist, Pimp, Atheism

  William Congreve (1785). “Love for Love: A Comedy”, p.8

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• The Black Mountain poet I like most is the early Creeley. Those early poems seem very lyrical and very traditional, with a lot of voice and character.

  Robert Morgan

  Character, Voice, Hiking

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• [I]n every part of this eastern world, from Pekin to Damascus, the popular teachers of moral wisdom have immemorially been poets.

  William Jones

  Teacher, Poetry, World

  Sir William Jones (1875). “Eleven Discourses: Containing His Anniversary Addresses on History, Civil and Natural, the Antiquities, Arts, Sciences and Literature of Asia”, p.129

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• The world, in its sheer exuberance of kindness, will try to bury the poet with warm and lovely human trivialities. It will even ask him to autograph books.

  Christopher Morley

  Kindness, Book, Lovely

  Christopher Morley (1933). “Christopher Morley's omnibus: an excursion among the books of Christopher Morley”

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• Revolution is a bitter thing, mixed with filth and blood, not as lovely or perfect as the poets think. It is eminently down to earth, involving many humble, tiresome tasks, not so romantic as the poets think... . So it is easy for all who have romantic dreams about revolution to become disillusioned on closer acquaintance, when a revolution is actually carried out.

  Lu Xun

  Dream, Humble, Thinking

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• The Language Poets are writing only about language itself. The Ashbery poets are writing only about poetry itself. That seems to me a kind of dead end.

  Robert Morgan

  Writing, Language, Kind

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• It's ironic that while I was a worker in Detroit, which I left when I was twenty six, my sense was that the thing that's going to stop me from being a poet is the fact that I'm doing this crummy work.

  Philip Levine

  Ironic, Detroit, Facts

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• Corruption is subtle, just like the Bible said. Many young poets have come to me and asked, How am I gonna make it? They feel, and often with considerable justice, that they are being overlooked while others with less talent are out there making careers for themselves. I always give the same advice. I say, Do it the hard way, and you’ll always feel good about yourself. You write because you have to, and you get this unbelievable satisfaction from doing it well. Try to live on that as long as you’re able.

  Philip Levine

  Writing, Careers, Long

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• Most joyful let the Poet be, it is through him that all men see.

  William Ellery Channing

  Men, Poetry, Joyful

  William Ellery Channing (1843). “Poems”

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