I despair of ever writing excellent poetry.
Nobody ever told me what to read, or ever put poetry in my way.
A poet must be a psychologist, but a secret one: he should know and feel the roots of phenomena but present only the phenomena themselves in full bloom or as they fade away.
The quietest poetry can be an explosion of joy.
For me, prose walks, poetry dances.
My films are an extension of my poetry, using the white screen like the white page to be filled with images.
In the world of poetry there are would-be poets, workshop poets, promising poets, lovesick poets, university poets, and a few real poets.
Today the U.S. is farther from being nourished by poetry than it was a hundred years ago, when books of poems were best-sellers.
Poetry for me is as much a spiritual practice as sexual ecstasy is.
Is there any purpose to translating poetry? A poem does not contain information of importance, like a signpost or a warning notice.
When the modern movement began, starting perhaps with the paintings of Manet and the poetry of Baudelaire and Rimbaud, what distinguished the modern movement was the enormous honesty that writers, painters and playwrights displayed about themselves. ...
An experienced reader uses the poem as an agent of inquiry. This makes poetry very exciting, unstable, and interactive.
No poem is easily grasped; so why should any reader expect fast results?
If poetry alters the way in which the reader views the world, then it has had its desired effect.
Sometimes poetry is inspired by the conversation entered into by reading other poems.
Drawing is a way of coming upon the connection between things, just like metaphor in poetry reconnects what has become separated.
The novel is born of disillusionment; the poem, of despair.
Metaphorical tone deafness is when people are unable to discern what is of value in something. I think I'm tone deaf to poetry, for instance. Despite having studied it into a second year of university, most of it just leaves me cold.
Poetry is man's rebellion against being what he is.
I have to admit that I had a lot of problems with poetry.
And, I mean, I think poetry does need to be met to some extent, especially, I guess, 19th century poetry, and for me, it's just been so worth the effort. It's like I'm planting a garden in my head.
