The poet sez--

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

--E. M. Forster

"A poem is never finished, only abandoned."

--Paul Valery

“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”

--Leonard Cohen

"All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling."

--Oscar Wilde

“Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but putting it on paper is, alas, not so easy as looking at it.”

---Vincent van Gogh

“Poetry should only occupy the idle.”

--Lord Byron

"Not every poem's good because it's ancient

Nor mayst thou blame it just because it's new,
Fair critics test, and prove, and so pass judgment

Fools praise or blame as they hear others do. "
-- Anon (Buddhist quote)

"Poetry is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal, which the reader recognizes as his own."
- Salvatore Quasimodo

"A man would do well to carry a pencil in his pocket and write down the thoughts of the moment.

Those that come unsought are commonly the most valuable and should be secured, they seldom return."
-- Francis Bacon

"Poetry is an orphan of silence.
The words never quite equal the experience behind them."

-- Charles Simic

"The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese."
-- Gilbert K. Chesterton

• poetry quotes
• more poetry quotes
• and some more
• ok, a few more here, too