Adam Zagajewski (June 21, 1945 – March 21, 2021) Poets must have firm opinions about life and death, but not political opinions: I don’t think that tax reform legislation is any business of poets.
Adam Zagajewski On Poets
David Whyte On Poets And Poetry
David Whyte (November 02, 1955 -) The poet lives and writes at the frontier between deep internal experience and the revelations of the outer world. There is no going back for the poet once this frontier has been reached; a new territory is visible and what has been said cannot be unsaid. The discipline of …
Jean Cocteau On Poets
Jean Cocteau (July 05, 1889 – October 11, 1963) The job of the poet (a job which can't be learned) consists of placing those objects of the visible world which have become invisible due to the glue of habit, in an unusual position which strikes the soul and gives them a tragic force.
Yehuda Amichai On Poets
Yehuda Amichai (May 03, 1924 – September 22, 2000) I think when you’re a poet you have to forget you’re a poet — a real poet doesn’t draw attention to the fact he’s a poet. The reason a poet is a poet is to write poems, not to advertise himself as a poet.
May Sarton On Being A Poet
May Sarton (May 3, 1912 – July 16, 1995) I am, I think, more of a poet..., if to be a poet means allowing life to flow through one rather than forcing it into a mold the will has shaped: if it means learning to let the day shape the work, not the work, the …
Adrienne Rich On Poets
Adrienne Rich (May 16, 1929–March 27, 2012) I have been a poet of the oppositional imagination, meaning that I don't think my only argument is with myself. My work is for people who want to imagine and claim wider horizons and carry on about them into the night, rather than rehearse the landlocked details of …
Carolyn Forché On Poets
Carolyn Forché (April 28, 1950 - ) The poets are more expected to be intellectuals and to have an active interest in history and politics and everything going on. They’re not expected to be sequestered in a literary culture. They’re not expected to have no opinions about events in the world. They’re expected to have …
William Rose Benét On Writing Poetry
William Rose Ben’et (February 2, 1886 – May 4, 1950) The poet (artist) must write as it pleases him to write. If he writes what other people tell him to write, he may get some good verse, but he won’t get poetry. When I write to please myself, I may write some very bad verse, …
Frank Delaney On Poets
Frank Delaney (October 24, 1942 -) The people we call “poets,” by which I mean true, real poets — they are merely very keen listeners who have learned to recognize when a poem is dropping by. Then they copy down what the poem is telling them in their heads. After that, they tidy up the …
May Sarton On Poets
May Sarton (May 3, 1912 – July 16, 1995) You choose to be a novelist, but you're chosen to be a poet. This is a gift and it's a tremendous responsibility. You have to be willing to give something terribly intimate and secret of yourself to the world and not care, because you have to …
James Baldwin On Poets
James Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) The poets (by which I mean all artists) are finally the only people who know the truth about us. Soldiers don’t. Statesmen don’t. Priests don’t. Union leaders don’t. Only poets.
May Sarton On Poets
May Sarton (May 3, 1912–July 16, 1995) You choose to be a novelist, but you're chosen to be a poet. This is a gift and it's a tremendous responsibility. You have to be willing to give something terribly intimate and secret of yourself to the world and not care, because you have to believe that …
