Every poem probably has sixty drafts behind it.
Mary Karr
Sometimes the only way I know how to work through something is by writing a poem. And sometimes I get to the end of the poem and look back and go... →
Sarah Kay
I'm uncomfortable with the focus on the poet and not on the poem.
Yusef Komunyakaa
But most commonly, it's one poem that I work on with a lot of intensity.
Philip Levine
My favorite poem ever was 'Annabel Lee' by Edgar Allan Poe.
Ross Lynch
Mostly the thought and the verse come inseparably. In my poem Poetics, it's as close as I come to telling how I do it.
Howard Nemerov
This creature of the poem may assemble itself into a being with its own centrifugal force.
Sharon Olds
I believe the poet shouldn't be in the poem at all except as a lens or as ears.
Alice Oswald
However, if a poem can be reduced to a prose sentence, there can't be much to it.
James Schuyler
Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket.
Charles Simic