Quotes

• All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling. (Oscar Wilde)
• At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.
• A poem begins with a lump in the throat. (Robert Frost)
• The courage of the Poet is to keep ajar the door that leads into madness. (Christopher Morley)
• Everywhere I go I find a poet has been there before me. (Sigmund Freud)
• For a man to be a poet he must be in love, or miserable. (Lord Byron)
• For me, poetry is an impish attempt to paint the color of the wind. (Maxwell Bodenheim)
• He who draws noble delights from sentiments of poetry is a true poet, though he has never written a line in all his life. (George Sand)
• If I don't write to empty my mind, I go mad. (Lord Byron)
• In the end, the poem is not a thing we see; it is, rather, a light by which we may see -- and what we see is life. (Robert Penn Warren)
• It is the job of poetry to clean up our word-clogged reality by creating silences around things. (Stephen Mallarme)
• Perhaps no person can be a poet, or can even enjoy poetry, without a certain unsoundness of mind. (Thomas B. Macaulay)
• A poem is never finished, only abandoned. (Paul Valery)
• The poet doesn't invent. He listens. (Jean Cocteau)
• Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason.
• A poet is someone who is astonished by everything.
• Poetry begins in delight and ends in wisdom. (Robert Frost)
• Poetry comes nearer to vital truth than history. (Plato)
• Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason. (Novalis)
• Poetry is a way of remembering what it would impoverish us to forget. (Robert Frost)
• Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance. (Carl Sandburg)
• Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them. (Charles Simic)
• Poetry is not a profession, it is a destiny. (Mikhail Dudan)
• Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things. (T. S. Eliot)
• Poetry is not the assertion that something is true, but the making of that truth more real to us. (T. S. Eliot)
• Poetry is the best words in the best order. (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
• Poetry is the clear expression of mixed feelings. (W. H. Auden)
• Poetry is the opening and closing of a door, leaving those who look through to guess what is seen during a moment. (Carl Sandburg)
• Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words. (Edgar Allan Poe)
• Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn. (Thomas Gray)
• Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words. (Robert Frost)
• Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar. (Percy Bysshe Shelley)
• Poetry should...strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance. (John Keats)
• A prose writer gets tired of writing prose, and wants to be a poet. So he begins every line with a capital letter, and keeps on writing prose. (Samuel McChord Crothers)
• Science is for those who learn; poetry, for those who know. (Joseph Roux)
• A translation is no translation...unless it will give you the music of a poem along with the words of it. (John Millington Synge)
• We don't read and write poetry because it's 'cute'. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. (from Dead Poet's Society)
• When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of mans concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. (John Fitzgerald Kennedy)
• When you write in prose you say what you mean. When you write in rhyme you say what you must. (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.)
• You don't have to suffer to be a poet; adolescence is enough suffering for anyone. (John Ciardi)
• You will not find poetry anywhere unless you bring some of it with you. (Joseph Joubert)

I Read a Tight-Fisted Poem Once

(Nancy Woods, from Room For Me and a Mountain Lion)

I touched the nothingness of air once and felt nothing.
I touched it again and felt a breeze.
I filled my lungs with air and smelled nothing.
I filled my body and soul with it and smelled the violets.
I read a tight-fisted poem once and realized nothing.
I read it again and was surprised to see it burst into blossom
and reveal its inner palm.

To look once is to be blind.
To look again is to see inside.
To run quickly and glance it to realize nothing.
To move slowly and become what you look at
is to realize that nothing does not exist.

Do you see what it really is or do you see what you want it to be?
Is he saying what is in his heart or is he saying what he thinks is in yours?
To see a person is to know what he is like.
To see through a person is you must walk in that Forest
and become a part of the green coolness that is the forest.

And when you return they will say, "Where have you been?"
And you will reply, "I have been a forest."
And they will look at you and sigh, and wonder when you will say,
"Ah! But how will I know how a forest feels unless I feel it, too?"
And they will wonder when their problem child is going to change
and begin to learn something useful.

How to Eat a Poem

(Eve Merriam)

Don't be polite
Bite in.
Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that
may run down your chin.
It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are.

You do not need a knife or fork or spoon
or plate or napkin or tablecloth.

For there is no core
or stem
or rind
or pit
or seed
or skin
to throw away.

Keep a Poem in Your Pocket

(Beatrice Schenk de Regniers)

Keep a poem in your pocket
and a picture in your head
and you'll never feel lonely
at night when you're in bed.

The little poem will sing to you
the little picture bring to you
a dozen dreams to dance to you
at night when you're in bed.

So--Keep a picture in your pocket
and poem in your head
and you'll never feel lonely
at night when you're in bed.

A Poem Not Ready to Be Heard

(Joe Paris)

The night calls to me, rushing home to save a poem cascading through my mind. Brought back to reality by what I wish were carnival lights, but knowing better.

Is there any reason to hurry tonight, sir?
The officer asks,

Yes, actually
I've seen something new
In the stars
They seem free without the weight of the moon
And poetry needs to breathe
Before thoughts escape like a number written on a cocktail napkin,

Been drinking tonight, sir?
The officer asks,

I drink laughter and smiles every day
I try to taste sunbeams
Savor the language of light on my tongue,

Step out of the car, please
The officer instructs,

But you don't understand
Dreams only come out to dance once in a while
It's time for rules to sleep
For us to float on the breath of beauty, like wishes on birthday candles,

Sir, you have the right to remain silent.

Acrostic Poems

Each line of an acrostic poem begins with a letter in its title. To write one, pick a subject. Make the subject your title. Write the letters of your title in a vertical row. Then write the lines of the poem, starting with the letters you have written. Each line can be a word, a phrase or a sentence.

MUSIC
M aking
U nique
S ounds
I nstead of
C haos.

TEAM
T ogether
E ach
A ccomplishes
M ore

FEAR
F alse
E vidence
A ppearing
R eal.

Songs about Poetry

• Almost Poetry - JAS (2005)
• Bad Poetry - Ben Lee (2009)
• Faster Horses (the Cowboy and the Poet) - Tom T. Hall (1976)
• Life's Like Poetry - Lefty Frizzell (1975)
• Pagan Poetry - Bjork (2004)
• Poetry - Jack Jones (1962)
• Poetry in Motion - Marcus Hummon (1999)

Songs about Rhymes

• A-Tisket, A-Tasket - Manhattan Transfer (1997)
• Eeny Meeny Miney Moe - The Canadian Sweethearts (1958)
• Georgie Porgie - Jewel Akens (1965)
• Goosey Gander - Phylicia Rashad (2007)
• If I Had Rhythm in My Nursery Rhymes - Janis Siegel (2005)
• Jack and Jill - Kim Richey (2007)
• Kid Games and Nursery Rhymes - Buddy Cagle and Penny DeHaven (1968)
• Little Bo Peep - Joe Dowell (1961)
• Little Boy Blue - Billy Bland (1963)
• Little Boy Blue is Blue No More - The Elegants (1960)
• Llama Rhymes With Mama - Chandler Travis Band (2002)
• Love's Lines, Angles and Rhymes - The Fifth Dimension (1971)
• Lunch With Mother Goose - John Zacherle (1958)
• Mother Goose - Jethro Tull (1971)
• Nursery Rhyme Blues - Merrill Moore (1957)
• Nursery Rhyme Rock - The Demensions (1960)
• Nursery Rhymes - The Manhattans (1975)
• Rhymes and Reasons - Mary Travers (1971)
• Rock and Roll Nursery Rhyme - Dave Dudley (1956)
• Rub-a-Dub-Dub - Hank Thompson (1953)
• Street That Rhymes at 6 a.m. - Norma Tanega (1966)
• Truth Doesn't Always Rhyme, The - Rebecca Holden (1989)
• We Rhyme - Kevin Denney (2002)
• Winken, Blinken and Nod - The Big Three (1967)
• With Rhyme and Reason - Noel Redding (1966)
• Without Rhyme or Reason - Spanky and Our Gang (1969)