Quotes about poetry
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“I have always loved playing around with words. I didn’t know it was called poetry. I was just an innocent kid messing around with words when an adult said ‘You’re a poet, be published or be damned’.”

Benjamin Zephaniah (1958) English poet and author

On the realization that he was a poet in “Interview with Benjamin Zephaniah” https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/writers/advice/37/a-writers-toolkit/interviews-with-authors/interview-with-benjamin-zephaniah in Writers & Artists

Love, Making love

“…I think that poets can do anything. With a novel, we all know about plot and character and yes, there’s experimental and people can recognize that, but I think that there are rules. I don’t think of poetry that way…”

Terrance Hayes (1971) American poet

On poets having certain freedoms in “Interview with Terrance Hayes” http://katonahpoetry.com/interviews/interview-terrance-hayes/ in the Katonah Poetry Series (2017 Sep 21)

People, Way, Thinking

“Spoken Word poetry is an art form that fits me well because it enables me to bring all the layers of who I am into one space — A reader, writer, and performer…”

Raymond Antrobus (1986)

On his preferred poetry style in “Prose Interviews London Poet Raymond Antrobus” https://medium.com/prose-matters/prose-interviews-london-poet-raymond-antrobus-c0e1fdf720b9 in Medium Magazine (2016 Mar 30)

Art

“Poetry has always been at the margins, and I think that because of its sidelining, this has been a part of its appeal…”

Raymond Antrobus (1986)

On poetry in “Interview | Raymond Antrobus” https://www.thelondonmagazine.org/interview-poet-raymond-antrobus/ in the London Magazine (2019 Feb 20)

Thinking, Parting

“The study and practice of poetry can equip you to 'boldly go where no man has gone before,' but it's not enough to go there—you have to be able to bear witness. Without witnessing, experience dissolves into nothing.”

Ariana Reines (1982) American writer

On the practice of poetry in “Ariana Reines Knows That Not All Surrender Is Bad” https://nylon.com/ariana-reines-sand-book-interview in Nylon Magazine (2019 Oct 15)

Study

“Poetry shows up where language shows up – a mysterious supplement, to borrow or deform an old Derrida epithet, that we cannot do without, and that just might be the basis of the material world as we know it. Well, if not language as such, then sound…”

Ariana Reines (1982) American writer

On poetry in “INTERVIEW WITH ARIANA REINES” http://www.thewhitereview.org/feature/interview-ariana-reines/ in The White Review (July 2019)

World

“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.”

movie Dead Poets Society

1989

Love, Life, Making love, Law

“For the truly creative mind in any field is no more than this — a human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To him a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create — to create — to create — so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of beauty and meaning his very breath is cut off from him. He must create. He must pour out creation. By some strange unknown pressing inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating.”

Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American writer

"The Creative Mind at Work," William Vaughn Moody Foundation Lecture at the University of Chicago (1935), as quoted in Pearl S. Buck: A Biography, Volume 2 - Her Philosophy as Expressed in Her Letters (1971) by Theodore F. Harris, p. 217.

Death, God, Books, Beauty

“The Bible as a whole is not written systematically, however, but is a collection of books of history, historical metaphor, biography, law and poetry, all leading into one another without an apparent plan. The Books of the Prophets include both historical narrative and an anthology of Divine revelations. Those of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings tell the history of the Jewish people from Joshua’s conquest of the Holy Land to the destruction of the first temple by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 586 B.C. These Hebrew prophets were the conscience of the people; for in the face of powerful priests and raving multitudes they spoke up with one chief purpose in mind—to teach man “to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.””

Geoffrey Hodson (1886–1983) New Zealand occultist

(Micah 6: 8). Isaiah writes with dignity and power, condemning social systems which forget the needs of the poor. Amos, a “herdman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit” (Amos, 7: 14), declared God’s judgment upon the nations and upon Israel, also foretelling Israel’s restoration. Jeremiah dedicated himself to God, but was despised and persecuted by the people. He called for peace when nations prepared for war, and demanded an inward religion of sincerity at a time when priests were enforcing their orthodox codes.
The Hidden Wisdom In The Holy Bible (1963), Volume II

Love, God, People, Books

“We hate poetry that has a palpable design upon us — and if we do not agree, seems to put its hand in its breeches pocket. Poetry should be great and unobtrusive, a thing which enters into one's soul, and does not startle or amaze with itself, but with its subject.”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

Letter to John Hamilton Reynolds (February 3, 1818)
Letters (1817–1820)

Hate, Soul

“Christ on the cross – what a symbol. A symbol of love surpassed by sorrow, which lies at the root of human condition, the main symbol of human poetry.. ..but that's enough of that, I'm getting morbid. It's Siredey's fault [his doctor during his last years, when Manet was seriously ill: syphilis]. Doctors always remind me of undertakers. Though I must say, I feel a lot better this evening.”

Edouard Manet (1832–1883) French painter

quoted in The private lives of the Impressionists, Sue Roe; Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 232 <br class="br">1880s <br class="br">while working on Antonin Proust's portrait https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PeinturesMus%C3%A9eFabre089-Manet.jpg in 1881-82

Love, Making love, Feeling, Christ

“You can’t lead bunny lives and write tiger poetry.”

William Packard (1933–2002) American writer

From the book Art of Poetry Writing: A Guide For Poets, Students, & Readers https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/467125.Art_of_Poetry_Writing published by St. Martin's Press on June 15, 1992.

“To be a poet is to dive into the madness of poetry and penetrate deeply into the realm of words…”

Valter Bitencourt Júnior (1994) Brazilian poet and writer

Madness

“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.”

Isocrates (-436–-338 BC) ancient greek rhetorician

Wisdom

“Of God one doesn't speak with any precision or seriousness except in poetry.”

Nicolás Gómez Dávila (1913–1994) Colombian writer and philosopher

Escolios a un Texto Implicito (1977), Volume Two

God

“Poetry is the fingerprint of God in human clay.”

Nicolás Gómez Dávila (1913–1994) Colombian writer and philosopher

Escolios a un Texto Implicito (1977), Volume Two

God

“The musical note is the language of intelligence. Intelligence speaks wherever there is poetry, music and song. Colour is part of it. We love colours because we come from colour. Colour and sound.”

J. Posadas (1912–1981) Argentine Trotskyist (1912-1981)

On the Socialist Future of Humanity, 1981

Love, Music, Intelligence, Parting

“The firmness of structure inherent in the canonic form is perfectly compatible with genuine freedom and poetry of inspiration.”

Walter Raymond Spalding (1865–1962) American music pedagogue and author

Page 37 https://books.google.com/books?id=pQARAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA37. <br class="br">Music: An Art and a Language (1920), Polyphonic Music; Sebastian Bach (Ch. III)

Freedom

“Poetry is bad standup. It's carefully chosen words that have no laugh at the end.”

Jerry Seinfeld (1954) American comedian and actor

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (2012 — Present), Season 9 (2017)

“Tonight I have no desire to sleep. / I want to remain here until morning / writing poetry. / The heart drowns less slowly / when the pen sheds tears / and the paper dries pain.”

Menotti Lerro (1980) Italian poet

Source: The Poetry of Menotti Lerro, p. 55

Pain, Tear, Sleep, Heart

“When a devil, but also a saint, laughs about your poetry, you laugh about his ignorance!”

Menotti Lerro (1980) Italian poet

Donna Giovanna, Act IV, scene iii.

“Poems have helped me figure out a lot about queer sexuality – it is a big hill to climb. The ability to transform myself in poetry helps me imagine myself differently in the real world.”

Danez Smith American poet

On how poetry has given him insight into his sexuality in “‘Every poem is political’: Danez Smith, the YouTube star shaking up poetry” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/28/danez-smith-interview-poetry-dont-call-us-dead-dear-white-america in The Guardian (2018 Jan 28)

World, Imagination, Help