Poet Quotes - Page 39

• Dream study impacts culture. We are put in touch with the inner poet who dreams. We hear our inner, subjective response to the outer world. That helps spiritualize our lives.

  Henry Reed

  Dream, Impact, Culture

  Henry Reed (2005). “Dream Medicine: Learning How to Get Help from Our Dreams”, p.266, We Publish Books

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• Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. There is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, only to discover what is already there.

  Henry Miller

  Kings, Men, Profound

  Henry Miller (1964). “Henry Miller on Writing”, New Directions Publishing

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• We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, only to discover what is already there.

  Henry Miller

  Kings, Musician, Creation

  Henry Miller (1964). “Henry Miller on Writing”, New Directions Publishing

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• Listen to these young poets and you'll discover the voice of the present and hear the voice of the future before the future is even here.

  Philip Levine

  Voice, Young

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• I pulled a book by Robinson Jeffers off the shelf one day. It was powerfully moving. Tears ran down my face. That's when I became a poet.

  William Everson

  Moving, Book, Poetry

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• I am a revolutionary, so my son can be a farmer, so his son can be a poet.

  John Adams

  Son, Revolutionary, Farmers

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• Turn pimp, flatterer, quack, lawyer, parson, be chaplain to an atheist, or stallion to an old woman, anything but a poet; for a poet is worse, more servile, timorous and fawning than any I have named.

  William Congreve

  Atheist, Pimp, Atheism

  William Congreve (1785). “Love for Love: A Comedy”, p.8

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• [I]n every part of this eastern world, from Pekin to Damascus, the popular teachers of moral wisdom have immemorially been poets.

  William Jones

  Teacher, Poetry, World

  Sir William Jones (1875). “Eleven Discourses: Containing His Anniversary Addresses on History, Civil and Natural, the Antiquities, Arts, Sciences and Literature of Asia”, p.129

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• The world, in its sheer exuberance of kindness, will try to bury the poet with warm and lovely human trivialities. It will even ask him to autograph books.

  Christopher Morley

  Kindness, Book, Lovely

  Christopher Morley (1933). “Christopher Morley's omnibus: an excursion among the books of Christopher Morley”

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• Most joyful let the Poet be, it is through him that all men see.

  William Ellery Channing

  Men, Poetry, Joyful

  William Ellery Channing (1843). “Poems”

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• In the beginning, said a Persian poet Allah took a rose, a lily, a dove, a serpent, a little honey, a Dead Sea apple, and a handful of clay. When he looked at the amalgram it was a woman.

  William Sharp

  Women, Apples, Sea

  William Sharp, Elizabeth Amelia Sharp (1912). “Selected Writings”

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• In days of yore, the poet's pen From wing of bird was plunder'd, Perhaps of goose, but now and then, From Jove's own eagle sunder'd. But now, metallic pens disclose Alone the poet's numbers; In iron inspiration glows, Or with the poet slumbers.

  John Adams

  Inspiration, Iron, Numbers

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• Poets and monks... We're both sort of peripheral to the world.

  Kathleen Norris

  World, Monk

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• Love seems to beautify and inspire all nature. It raises the earthly caterpillar into the ethereal butterfly, it paints the feathers in spring, it lights the glowworm's lamp, it wakens the song of birds, and inspires the poet's lay. Even inanimate Nature seems to feel the spell, and flowers glow with the richest colours.

  John Lubbock

  Song, Spring, Flower

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• For a man to become a poet (witness Petrarch and Dante), he must be in love, or miserable.

  Lord Byron

  Men, Miserable, Witness

  "Journal of the Conversations of Lord Byron". Book by Thomas Medwin, 1823.

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• God, eldest of Poets.

  William Watson

  Eldest

  "England, my England" in "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, (pp. 605-609), 1922.

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• He saw wan Woman toil with famished eyes; He saw her bound, and strove to sing her free. He saw her fall'n; and wrote "The Bridge of Sighs"; And on it crossed to immortality.

  William Watson

  Fall, Eye, Bridges

  William Watson, “Thomas Hood”

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• I've always wanted to be a poet at the beginning. I would look at my grandparents' books and my parents' books. And in my family, a typical aspirational Jewish family, being a writer was very much exalted, and it seemed impossible to me, that I could ever do something like that.

  Mark Leyner

  Book, Grandparent, Typical

  "Whit Stillman and Mark Leyner on Their First Projects in 15 Years". Interview with Matthew Perpetua, www.rollingstone.com. April 6, 2012.

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• I think it's the responsibility of every human being, not just those who wear the identity of poet, activist, voter, religious person... it's the responsibility of every person. Our responsibility is to use our intelligence as clearly and coherently as we possibly can.

  John Trudell

  Religious, Responsibility, Thinking

  Source: www.raintaxi.com

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• He led quite a great life, ... He was an Old Testament figure railing against the establishment - a Jewish guy from New York who became a Buddhist, a poet, a musician.

  Tom Hayden

  Buddhist, New York, Guy

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• Many people I know - writers, poets - they have all been sentenced not once but sometimes three times after they come out. They serve five or six years, come out another time, and then nine years. Come out again, 12 years. Only because they have a different opinion. They are innocent people, they have beautiful minds, beautiful hearts.

  Ai Weiwei

  Beautiful, Heart, Years

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• Everyone is a poet at 16, but how many are poets at 50? Generally, people seem to get more conservative as they age, but in my case, I seem to have gotten more radical.

  Fidel Castro

  People, Age, Conservative

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• A good poem has its own life. It's like bringing a child into the world. You, the poet, birthed the child, but the child will surprise you continually. I think a work of art has its own aliveness, its own future.

  David Whyte

  Art, Children, Thinking

  "Courageous Conversations: An Interview with David Whyte". Interview with Kim Rosen, spiritualityhealth.com. December 8, 2014.

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• The workplace needs the poet's gift. But the poet also needs to be educated about the workplace. You're not just coming in to do your art, you're actually making yourself vulnerable. You yourself are not God's gift to truth. You have to hazard yourself in their world, especially because you're inviting people to do the same. It's all about become visible, becoming incarnate, becoming here and now and yet with our eyes on a future horizon; holding the conversation you were meant to hold.

  David Whyte

  Art, Eye, People

  "Courageous Conversations: An Interview with David Whyte". Interview with Kim Rosen, spiritualityhealth.com. December 8, 2014.

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• Every poet has a certain amount of "stuff." That's what you draw from for imagery. The more stuff you know well, not simply intellectually but sensually, emotionally, intimately, the wider the pool from which you draw.

  Marge Piercy

  Stuff, Pool, Certain

  Interview with Charlotte Templin, margepiercy.com. May 2004.

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