Poetry and fiction have grieved for a century now over the loss of some vitality which they think they see in a past from which we are by now... →
Guy Davenport
I like poems that are little games.
Peter Davison
I think poetry has lost an awful lot of its muscle because nobody knows any. Nobody has to memorize poetry.
Poetry is composing for the breath.
There are so many things that poetry is about, one of which is memory.
And there are a lot more people reading poetry, but there are not so many people reading an individual poet.
But poetry is my life. Poetry is what matters to me.
It is a way we reassess our past. We can do that in poetry in ways we can't do in prose.
Poetry should be able to reach everybody, and it should be able to appeal to all levels of understanding.
Poetry was invented as an mnemonic device to enable people to remember their prayers.