Poetry quotes

Poetry is life distilled.

I see people who talk about America, and then undermine it by not paying attention to its soul, to its poetry. I see polarization, reductionism and superficiality.

America was based on a poetic vision. What will happen when it loses its poetry?

I've done a number of readings at poetry lounges in Vancouver and Los Angeles. I've compiled a book of poetry that's completed, and two others I'm working on.

Naming a baby is an act of poetry, for many people the only creative moment of their lives.

So, poetry becomes a means for useful dialogue between people who are not only unknown, but mute to each other. It produces a dialogue among people that guards all of us against manipulation by our so-called leaders.

The first function of poetry is to tell the truth, to learn how to do that, to find out what you really feel and what you really think.

I don't think it's always good to read lots of poetry.

If there's no money in poetry, neither is there poetry in money.

Reading a piece of poetry with no beat in front of 20 people is way more challenging than rocking for 10, 000 people.

And my father was a comic. He could play any musical instrument. He loved to perform. He was a wonderfully comedic character. He had the ability to dance and sing and charm and analyze poetry.

Prose talks and poetry sings.

Science and art, or by the same token, poetry and prose differ from one another like a journey and an excursion. The purpose of the journey is its goal, the purpose of an excursion is the process.

Poetry, it is often said and loudly so, is life's true mirror. But a monkey looking into a work of literature looks in vain for Socrates.

I don't think rap really fits in to 'American Idol' in the sense that I believe rap is an art form in itself more akin to poetry, more akin to drama, if you will.

On the other hand, if there's an underlying core of poetry that I go to, I go to the sea. I've lived on the sea all my life. I live on the sea in Cape Breton.

If you don't mark your successes, the day your ship comes in could be just another day at the office, and there's no poetry in that.

I think we fool ourselves and really negate a great deal of history if we think that the oral history of poetry is shorter than the written history of poetry. It's not true. Poetry has a longer oral tradition than it does written.

More people than ever are slowly but surely turning their ears toward poetry.

I was always making up rhymes. But I never thought that poetry would become my life.