Poetic Reflection Quotes

Nothing is too small. Nothing is too, quote-unquote, ordinary or insignificant. Those are the things that make up the measure of our days, and they're the things that sustain us. And they're the things that certainly can become worthy of poetry.

A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.

Usually, a number of events will be going on around me to start me on a book. What I mean is, I will have read a poem or seen a picture that is lingering in my mind.

Oh, to be in England now that April's there.

I'm a songwriter. Everything affects me.

I felt implicated in American affairs.Outraged at the blatant lies about Iraqs involvement in al Qaeda, at the regimes arrogance and stupidity, Guantnamo Bay and all the rest of it. But the poems at the start of District and Circle Anahorish 1944, The Aerodromearent particularly aimed as criticism. On the contrary, there's a recognition of the big contribution to world order made in Europe during World War II.

The way a crow Shook down on me The dust of snow From a hemlock tree Has given my heart A change of mood And saved some part Of a day I had rued.

I actually remember celebrating National Poetry Day at school; I remember having to write and read a load.

I think the term poet is a very exalted term and should be applied to a man at the end of his work. When he looks back over the body of his work and he's written poetry then let the verdict be that he's a poet.

To me the meanest flower that blows can give thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself.

One of the most important things to me as a songwriter is to make music that's young and fresh but also soulful and real. I want people to feel like they know me once they listen to my songs.

The best poems come from the world, go through the poet, and go back in to the world.

We simply have not kept in touch with poetry.

I just write... I follow the melodies that I can't forget/the ones that pop up in my brain the most.

I write most songs randomly. They don't always deal with something I've been through but something I think is important to tell.

A line has to have a certain number of syllables, and the next line has to be its mirror image.

The number of people writing poems is vast, and their reasons for doing so are many, that much can be surmised from the stacks of submissions.

Ted Hughes is dead. That's a fact, OK. Then there's something called the poetry of Ted Hughes. The poetry of Ted Hughes is more real, very soon, than the myth that Ted Hughes existed - because that can't be proven.

I find a lot of poetry very disappointing, but I do have poets that I go back to. One book of poetry that I'd like to mention is 'The Exchange' by Sophie Cabot Black. Her poems are difficult without being too difficult.

If after I read a poem the world looks like that poem for 24 hours or so I'm sure it's a good one—and the same goes for paintings.

Canst thou prophesy, thou little tree, What the glory of thy boughs shall be?

A certain kind of poetry looks back at experience from an older perspective.

That's what my life is, writing songs.

I don't write songs about a specific, elusive thing.