My obsession with time informs my poetry so completely it is hard for me to summarize it. We want time to pass, for new things to happen to us, we want to hold on to certain moments, we don't want our lives to end. Use this quote
Teaching writing over the years intrudes on your own writing in important ways, taking away some of the excitement of poetry. Use this quote
I never really liked poetry readings; I liked to read poetry by myself, but I liked singing, chanting my lyrics to this jazz group. Use this quote
Written poetry is different. Best thing is to see it in performance first, then read it. Performance is more provocative. Use this quote
I wonder if I ever thought of an ideal reader... I guess when I was in my 20s and in New York and maybe even in my early 30s, I would write for my wife Janice... mainly for my poet friends and my wife, who was very smart about poetry. Use this quote
It is time to get drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of Time, get drunk; get drunk without stopping! On wine, on poetry, or on virtue, as you wish. Use this quote
You don't go after poetry, you take what comes. Maybe the gods do it through me but I certainly do a hell of a lot of the work. Use this quote
The end of poetry is not to create a physical condition which shall give pleasure to the mind... The end of poetry is not an after-effect, not a pleasurable memory of itself, but an immediate, constant and even unpleasant insistence upon itself. Use this quote
I think that's what poetry does. It allows people to come together and identify with a common thing that is outside of themselves, but which they identify with from the interior. Use this quote
That poetry survived in its formal agencies finally, and that prose survived to get something said. Use this quote
It is a happy thing that there is no royal road to poetry. The world should know by this time that one cannot reach Parnassus except by flying thither. Use this quote
If you go into a bar in most places in America and even say the word poetry, you'll probably get beaten up. But poetry is a really strong, beautiful form to me, and a lot of innovation in language comes from poetry. Use this quote
I've done a number of readings at poetry lounges in Vancouver and Los Angeles. I've compiled a book of poetry that's completed, and two others I'm working on. Use this quote
The other side of it is that, despite all that, people reach out to poetry at the key moments in their lives. Use this quote
Well, I still write poetry, but I wouldn't call myself a poet. Use this quote
I hardly remember how I started to write poetry. It's hard to imagine what I thought poetry could do. Use this quote
This proves that great lyric poetry can die, be reborn, die again, but will always remain one of the most outstanding creations of the human soul. Use this quote
Poetry is a mere drug, Sir. Use this quote
A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses. Use this quote
There's not a good poet I know who has not at the beck and call of his memory a vast quantity of poetry that composes his mental library. Use this quote
