Daydreaming is one of the key sources of poetry - a poem often starts as a daydream that finds its way into language - and walking seems to bring a different sort of alertness, an associative kind of thinking, a drifting state of mind. Edward Hirsch alertnessassociativebring share on social
True poetry is similar to certain pictures whose owner is unknown and which only a few initiated people know. Eugenio Montale initiateownerpeople Change image and share on social
I was a 16-year-old girl at one point, so of course I wrote poetry. Elizabeth Edwards girlpoetrypoint Change image and share on social
I'm a great believer in poetry out of the classroom, in public places, on subways, trains, on cocktail napkins. I'd rather have my poems on the subway than around the seminar table at an MFA program. Billy Collins believerclassroomcocktail Change image and share on social
Pain is filtered in a poem so that it becomes finally, in the end, pleasure. Mark Strand endfilterfinally Change image and share on social
The great watershed of modern poetry is French, more than English. Robert Morgan englishfrenchgreat Change image and share on social
People want poetry. They need poetry. They get it. They don't want fancy work. Mary Oliver fancypeoplepoetry Change image and share on social
The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as poetry. Bertrand Russell delightexaltationexcellence Change image and share on social
In the winter of 1940, 'The Atlantic Monthly' invited Peter Viereck, a twenty-three-year-old Harvard graduate who had won the college's top essay and poetry prizes, to write about 'the meaning of young liberalism for the present age.' Tom Reiss ageatlanticcollege share on social
Poetry has the virtue of being able to say twice as much as prose in half the time, and the drawback, if you do not give it your full attention, of seeming to say half as much in twice the time. Christopher Fry attentiondrawbackfull Change image and share on social
