“Poetry is the most bodliy of arts, the medium of poetry is the column of breath rising from the diaphragm in the individual's chest to be shaped into meaning sounds inside the mouth of whoever undertakes to say the poem.”

— Robert Pinsky

The Art of Poetry - interview 1995 with Downing & Kunitz

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Robert Pinsky 21

American poet, editor, literary critic, academic. 1940

Michael Schmidt (poet) (1947) American poet

The Great Modern Poets, London, 2006

“I never think of poetry or the poetry scene, only separate poems written by individuals.”

Philip Larkin (1922–1985) English poet, novelist, jazz critic and librarian

Interview in The Review, published by Ian Hamilton (1972)

“Poetry and art are the breath of life to her.”

Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence

Source: The Age of Innocence

“Poetry is a collaborative art, and yet—as it is being created—the most solitary and 'individual' of activities.”

Michael Schmidt (poet) (1947) American poet

Reading Modern Poetry, London, 1989

“For most of history poetry has been an oral art, it retains the vestiges of orality, an experience embedded in the sensuality of sounds.”

Edward Hirsch (1950)

How to Read a Poem And Fall in Love with Poetry (1998)

“The meanings of poetry take their growth through the interaction of the images and the music of the poem.”

Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980) poet and political activist

Source: The Life of Poetry (1949), p. 31
Context: The meanings of poetry take their growth through the interaction of the images and the music of the poem. The music is not the rhythm, which is a representation of life, alone. The music involves the interplay of the sounds of words, the length of the sequences, the keeping and breaking of rhythms, and the repetition and variation of syllables unrhymed and rhymed. It also involves the play of ideas and images.

“The line is a way of thinking in poetry, by poetry.. it paces the poem.”

Edward Hirsch (1950)

'Five points' vol 4 no 2 Georgia State University Press Winter 2000

“For literary purposes, the art of writing poetry can be simply defined as: A creative act using language as a medium refined to an art.”

Vanna Bonta (1958–2014) Italian-American writer, poet, inventor, actress, voice artist (1958-2014)

The Cosmos as a Poem (2010)

“Who says my poems are poems?
My poems are not poems.
When you know that my poems are not poems,
Then we can speak of poetry.”

Ryōkan (1758–1831) Japanese Buddhist monk

Variant translation:
Who says my poems are poems?
My poems are not poems.
After you know my poems are not poems,
Then we can begin to discuss poetry!
"Zen Poetics of Ryokan" in Simply Haiku: A Quarterly Journal of Japanese Short Form Poetry (Summer 2006) http://www.hermitary.com/articles/ryokan_poetics.html
Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf : Zen Poems of Ryokan (1993)

“Third and finally, poetry originated as a form of vocal music. It began as a performative and auditory medium, linked to music and dance and associated with civic ceremony, religious ritual, and magic. (The earliest poetry almost certainly served a shamanistic function.) Most aboriginal cultures did not distinguish poetry from song because the arts were so interrelated as to be porous. Nor did the classical Greek or Chinese cultures two or three millennia ago differentiate poetry from song”

Dana Gioia (1950) American writer

10
Essays, Can Poetry Matter? (1991), Poetry as Enchantment (2015)

“Poetry is the most bodliy of arts, the medium of poetry is the column of breath rising from the diaphragm in the individual's chest to be shaped into meaning sounds inside the mouth of whoever undertakes to say the poem.”

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