Poetry is the one place where people can speak their original human mind. It is the outlet for people to say in public what is known in private.
'Therefore' is a word the poet must not know.
I am a writer, which means I write stories, I write novels, and I would write poetry if I knew how to. I don't want to limit myself.
I could no more define poetry than a terrier can define a rat.
Poetry operates by hints and dark suggestions. It is full of secrets and hidden formulae, like a witch's brew.
I wish you would read a little poetry sometimes. Your ignorance cramps my conversation.
I learn poetry, learn text, and that really keeps you alive.
In the total darkness, poetry is still there, and it is there for you.
I want to branch out. I want to write. I write poetry. I want to see my children grow up well.
Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people.
Stadium rock and commercial rock are the opposite of what poetry needs. An audience of around 200 is ideal for poetry.
Romantic poetry had its heyday when people like Lord Byron were kicking it large. But you try and make a living as a poet today, and you'll find it's very different!
Each memorable verse of a true poet has two or three times the written content.
In a general way, I want to be a kind of flag-waver, bunting hanger-up, drum-beater, you name it, for poetry.
Thanks partly to the kind of poets that we now have and partly to funding, there's been a gigantic shift in the way poetry is perceived... Poems on the Underground, poets in schools, football clubs, zoos.
While also, importantly, not wanting to dumb it down or pretend the days of 'difficult' poetry are over, because we live in a pluralist culture and there's room for 'difficult' poetry alongside rap and everything else. And poetry won't be for everyon...
Journalism is concerned with events, poetry with feelings. Journalism is concerned with the look of the world, poetry with the feel of the world.
So now I have a collection of poetry by Aaron Neville and I give it to people I want to share it with. I'd like to publish it someday.
Rap is rhythm and poetry. Hip-hop is storytelling and poetry as well.
I have not the slightest pretension to call my verses poetry; I write now and then for no other purpose than to relieve depression or to improve my English.
America was based on a poetic vision. What will happen when it loses its poetry?
