Poetry Quotes

I began the way nearly everybody I ever heard of - I began writing poetry. And I find that to be quite usual with writers, their trying their hand at poetry.

I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.

So much of my poetry begins with something that I can describe in visual terms, so thinking about distance, thinking about how life begins and what might be watching us.

I try to show what it is about language and music that enthralls, because I think those are the two elements of poetry.

Poetry is, first and last, language - the rest is filler.

But poetry is a way of language, it is not its subject or its maker's background or interests or hobbies or fixations. It is nearer to utterance than history.

Teaching writing over the years intrudes on your own writing in important ways, taking away some of the excitement of poetry.

Lean your body forward slightly to support the guitar against your chest, for the poetry of the music should resound in your heart.

Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people.

As things are, and as fundamentally they must always be, poetry is not a career, but a mug's game. No honest poet can ever feel quite sure of the permanent value of what he has written: He may have wasted his time and messed up his life for nothing.

In the past, poetry came in the form of spells and chants used to effect change.

And if they haven't got poetry in them, there's nothing you can do that will produce it.

I was excited by what my painter friends were doing, and they seemed to be interested in our poetry too, and that was a wonderful little, fizzy sort of world.

Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry.

Theater is far superior to film in poetry, in abstract poetry.

Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.

Poetry must be made by all and not by one.

There are distinct duties of a poet laureate. I plan a reading series at the Library of Congress and advise the librarian. The rest is how I want to promote poetry.

I think the best American poetry is the poetry that utilizes the resources of poetry rather than exploits the defects or triumphs of the poet's personality.

Well - I started writing - probably in the early 60s and by say '65-'66 I had read most of the poetry that had been published - certainly in the 20 years prior to that.

Some people swear by writing courses, but whether it really helps American poetry, I have doubts.

I think it comes from really liking literary forms. Poetry is very beautiful, but the space on the page can be as affecting as where the text is. Like when Miles Davis doesn't play, it has a poignancy to it.

Poetry is truth in its Sunday clothes.

Poetry is the work of poets, not of peoples or communities; artistic creation can never be anything but the production of an individual mind.

It's necessary to start most work alone. But I'm tickled to death when I can pull somebody in or join someone, whether it's borrowing poetry or traveling with an associate.

I have always made my own rules, in poetry as in life - though I have tried of late to cooperate more with my family. I do, however, believe that without order or pattern poetry is useless.

I sometimes talk about the making of a poem within the poem.

All good poetry is forged slowly and patiently, link by link, with sweat and blood and tears.

I always thought that poetry is the verdict that others give to a certain kind of writing. So to call yourself a poet is a kind of dangerous description. It's for others; it's for others to use.

So now I have a collection of poetry by Aaron Neville and I give it to people I want to share it with. I'd like to publish it someday.