Poetry Writing Quotes

I have been writing poetry since 1975. My first poetry book was published in 1986.

I never think about poetry except when I'm writing it. I mean my poetry.

One can be well-bred and write bad poetry

I don't write poetry for the New Yorker. My poems appear in the Nation, mostly.

What I write could only be called poetry because there is no other category to put it.

Poetry being ... when we look from the center outward.

Maybe poetry's not so important, but ... it makes life worth living.

I don't write poetry and then strum some chords and then fit the words on top of the chords.

How does one happen to write a poem: where does it come from? That is the question asked by the psychologists or the geneticists of poetry.

some moments are nice, some arenicer, some are even worthwritingabout.

I believe that to be the world's greatest livingwriterthere must be somethingterribly wrong with you.I don't even want to be the world's greatestdead writer.just being dead would be fairenough.

The centuries are sprinkled with rare magicwith divine creatureswho help us get past the common and extraordinary ills that beset us

A poem is never a put-up job, so to speak. It begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. It is never a thought to begin with.

Music resembles poetry, in eachAre nameless graces which no methods teach, And which a master hand alone can reach.

Tell all the truth but tell it slant.

I didn't want to sing.I wanted to be music.

Sit here, so I may writeyou into a poem and make you eternal.

If I had to choose between all the books in the world and you, then I would choose to read your body for the rest of my life.

Poetry is jealous of you tonight, for as soon as I come to pen a few words, your perfume attacks me in the most civilised manner and I forget myself. I forget the poem. I forget the ...

Thoughts are ideas scattered in your head. When written forms a sentence. When rhymed, it forms a phrase and singing it blooms a beautiful poem.

I wonderif you ever read my poemsand wish they were writtenfor you.

Some men are born to be good some born to be badAs for me I only came with just a pen ‘n’ a pad.

Writing poems is simply an excuse to remember You.

Lineation can make your break your poems.

There is a master way with words which is not learned but is instead developed: a deaf man develops exceptional vision, a blind man exceptional hearing, a silent man, when given a piece of paper...

Read the lines as if they were unknown to you, and you will feel in your inmost self how very much they are yours.

I want to read every book that’s writtenhear every song that was sungI want to gaze at every cloudand hold the zing of each fruit on my tongue.

To come up with one great sentence, one needs to serve a life sentence.

If I knew what to doI'd do more than write a song for you

Every time your work is read, you die several deaths for every word, and poetry is like being flayed alive.

Talent is a faucet. When it is on, one must write. Inspiration is a farce that poets have invented to give themselves importance.

Everything has its poetry. 94

And so I pray I am today as honestwith myself, with life all around me and below and above me, with all who I encounter.

When words lose their meaning, physical force takes over.

so much of the world is plunged in darkness and chaos...So ring the bells that still can ringForget your perfect offeringThere is a crack in everythingThat’s how the light gets in.

It is not enough to be a man.

My grief were thoroughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together! For now it would be heavier than the sand of the desert.

What is my strength, that I should hope? Is my strength the strength of stone? Or is my flesh of brass? Is not my help in me.

One generation passes away, and another generation cometh forth: but the earth abides for ever.

To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the music the words make.

And the most beautiful words ever spoken, I have not yet said to you.

I don't think all writers are sad, she said.I think it's the other way around—all sad people write.

Writing is not a matter of time, but a matter or of space. If you don't keep space in your head for writing, you won't write even if you have the time.

Anyone who has no need of anybody but himself is either a beast or a God."Aristotle

My Muse sits forlornShe wishes she had not been bornShe sits in the coldNo word she says is ever told.

The crazy thing about poetry is how its simplicity makes it complicated.

There have been times I've felt so much art in my soul I grew sick of artists.

. . . chasing after words like trying to grab the tails of comets.

I rhymeTo see myself, to set the darkness echoing.

I have no doubt at all the Devil grins, As seas of ink I spatter. Ye gods, forgive my "literary" sins --The other kind don't matter.