Poetry Is Quotes - Page 6

• The joy of poetry is that it will wait for you. Novels don't wait for you. Characters change. But poetry will wait. I think it's the greatest art.

  Sonia Sanchez

  Art, Character, Thinking

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• The poetry is all in the anticipation, for there is none in reality.

  Mark Twain

  Reality, Anticipation

  Mark Twain (1872). “Roughing It”, p.143, Buccaneer Books

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• The short story is at an advantage over the novel, and can claim its nearer kinship to poetry, because it must be more concentrated, can be more visionary, and is not weighed down (as the novel is bound to be) by facts, explanation, or analysis. I do not mean to say that the short story is by any means exempt from the laws of narrative: it must observe them, but on its own terms.

  Elizabeth Bowen

  Mean, Law, Narrative

  Elizabeth Bowen (1959). “Stories”

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• Poetry is talking on tiptoe.

  George Meredith

  Talking, Tiptoes

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  The fact is that poetry is not the books in the library . . . Poetry is the encounter of the reader with the book, the discovery of the book.

  Jorge Luis Borges

  Book, Discovery, Library

  Jorge Luis Borges, Eliot Weinberger (2009). “Seven Nights”, p.80, New Directions Publishing

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• I think poetry bridges text and image. Poetry is visual in its imagery - but it requires close attention to words themselves. Words become jewels in poetry, while they are often tools in other genres.

  Allegra Goodman

  Thinking, Attention, Imagery

  Source: www.commonwealmagazine.org

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• Think it's so unfair when people think that you're not a "real artist" unless you're getting paid for it....I personally know so many poets that work a 9 to 5 in a cubicle and come home and write poetry. Their poetry is just as powerful and moving as anything that I've ever written, if not more.

  Sarah Kay

  Powerful, Real, Moving

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• Writing essays and teaching composition have helped me immensely in writing poetry, because they've forced me to focus on the structure of ideas.

  Aaron Belz

  Teaching, Writing, Ideas

  "Cartographer of Word Galaxies". Interview with Susan Lerner, logger.believermag.com. September 24, 2013.

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• I always say that one's poetry is a solace to oneself and a nuisance to one's friends.

  Hortense Calisher

  Poetry, Nuisance, Solace

  Hortense Calisher (2013). “The Collected Stories of Hortense Calisher”, p.629, Open Road Media

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• What shall I say about poetry? What shall I say about those clouds, or about the sky? Look; look at them; look at it! And nothing more. Don't you understand anything about poetry? Leave that to the critics and the professors. For neither you, nor I, nor any poet knows what poetry is.

  Federico Garcia Lorca

  Clouds, Sky, Poetry

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• Poetry is, above all, an approach to the truth of feeling.

  Muriel Rukeyser

  Feelings, Approach

  "The Life of Poetry". Book by Muriel Rukeyser. Chapter One: "The Fear of Poetry", 1949.

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• The universe of poetry is the universe of emotional truth. Our material is in the way we feel and the way we remember.

  Muriel Rukeyser

  Emotional, Poetry, Way

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• To me, a poem is almost like someone whispering to another person, or you hear the whispering in your head. I hope with my own poems that the reader feels a connection, soul to soul, that'll help us all feel a little less alone on the planet. And it does have the power to direct change. A writer can make the word 'dark' be something positive. You can relieve a word like 'hysterical' of its misogynistic implications. You can make the language your own. That's what poetry is about.

  Rita Dove

  Dark, Soul, Littles

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• Poetry is a dumb Buddha who thinks a donkey is as important as a diamond.

  Natalie Goldberg

  Thinking, Poetry, Dumb

  Natalie Goldberg (1990). “Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life”, Bantam

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• But it's silly to suggest the writing of poetry is something ethereal, a sort of soul-crashing, devastating emotional experience that wrings you. I have no fancy ideas about poetry. ... It doesn't come to you on the wings of a dove. It's something you have to work hard at.

  Louise Bogan

  Silly, Hard Work, Writing

  Louise Bogan, Ruth Limmer (1981). “Journey around my room: the autobiography of Louise Bogan : a mosaic”, Viking Pr

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• Poetry is often generations in advance of the thought of its time.

  Louise Bogan

  Poetry, Generations

  Louise Bogan (1970). “A Poet's Alphabet: Reflections on the Literary Art and Vocation”, New York : McGraw-Hill

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• But poetry is not to be lived, except for the few to whom it is more important than self-preservation.

  Rosamond Lehmann

  Self, Poetry, Important

  Rosamond Lehmann (1975). “The ballad and the source”, Harvest Books

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• The human creature is alone in his carapace. Poetry is a strong way out.

  Stevie Smith

  Strong, Way, Humans

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• I hope that the feeling of making poetry is not confined to the people who write it down. There is no luxury like it, and I hope we all share it. ... I am sure that the great glory of poetry in one's heart does not wait on achievement.

  Stella Benson

  Writing, Heart, Luxury

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• Poetry is one of the essential structures of civilization - carrying myth, ritual, 'tales of the tribe' and the essence of language.

  Diane Wakoski

  Essence, Civilization, Essentials

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• The reason modern poetry is difficult is so that the poet's wife cannot understand it.

  Wendy Cope

  Wife, Poetry, Reason

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• Poetry is not an end in itself but in the service of life; of what use are poems, or any other works of art, unless to enable human lives to be lived with insight of a deeper kind, with more sensitive feelings, more intense sense of the beautiful, with deeper understanding?

  Kathleen Raine

  Beautiful, Art, Understanding

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• Of all the art forms, poetry is the most economical. It is the one which is the most secret, which requires the least physical labor, the least material, and the one which can be done between shifts, in the hospital pantry, on the subway, and on scraps of surplus paper. ... poetry has been the major voice of poor, working class, and Colored women. A room of one's own may be a necessity for writing prose, but so are reams of paper, a typewriter, and plenty of time.

  Audre Lorde

  Art, Writing, Typewriters

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• What is poetry? Do not enquire. The secret dies by prying. How does the heart beat? I fainted when I saw it on the screen, opening and closing like a flower ... Poetry is like this, it is life moving, terrible, vivid. Look the other way when you write, or you might faint.

  Elizabeth Smart

  Flower, Moving, Writing

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• 20th century poetry is a piñata. Images break from the earth when the poet strikes it.

  Diane Glancy

  Poetry, Earth, Break

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