I have nothing to say / and I am saying it / and that is poetry / as I needed i
Truly fine poetry must be read aloud. A good poem does not allow itself to be read in a low voice or silently. If we can read it silently, it is not a valid poem: a poem demands pronounciation. Poetry remembers that it was an oral art before it was a written art. It remembers that it was first song.
He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realize.
To have ruined oneself over poetry is an honor.
Like a piece of ice on a hot stove, a poem must ride on its own melting. A poem may be worked over once it is in being but may not be worried into being.
The greatest poets are those with memories so great that they extend beyond their strongest experiences to their minutest observations of people and things far outside their own self-centeredness.
