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John Ashbery

"I don't look on poetry as closed works. I feel they're going on all the time in my head and I occasionally snip off a length."

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"I don't look on poetry as closed works. I feel they're going on all the time in my head and I occasionally snip off a length."

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Amber Hurdle

"Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry."

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Amber Hurdle

"But at the beginning it was clear to me that concrete poetry was peculiarly suited for using in public settings. This was my idea, but of course I never really much got the chance to do it."

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Amber Hurdle

"I get a little poetic sometimes. The moonlight does that to me."

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Amber Hurdle

"And here, in thought, to thee-In thought that can alone, Ascend thy empire and so be A partner of thy throne, By winged Fantasy, My embassy is given, Till secrecy shall knowledge be In the environs of Heaven."

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Amber Hurdle

"Justice is not Healing. Healing cometh only by suffering and patience, and maketh no demand, not even for Justice. Justice worketh only within the bonds of things as they are... and therefore though Justice is itself good and desireth no further evil, it can but perpetuate the evil that was, and doth not prevent it from the bearing of fruit in sorrow."

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Amber Hurdle

"None but a poet can write a tragedy. For tragedy is nothing less than pain transmuted into exaltation by the alchemy of poetry."

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Amber Hurdle

"Every poet has his dream reader: mine keeps a look out for curious prosodic fauna like bacchics and choriambs."

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Amber Hurdle

"My second thoughts condemnAnd wonder how I dareTo look you in the eye.What right have I to swearEven at one a.m.To love you till I die?Earth meets too many crimesFor fibs to interest her;If I can give my word,Forgiveness can recurAny number of timesIn Time. Which is absurd.Tempus fugit. Quite.So finish up your drink.All flesh is grass. It is. But who on earth can thinkWith heavy heart or lightOf what will come of this?"

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Amber Hurdle

"Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people."

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Amber Hurdle

"That men, who might have tower'd in the vanOf all the congregated world, to fanAnd winnow from the coming step of timeAll chaff of custom, wipe away all slimeLeft by men-slugs and human serpentry,Have been content to let occasion die,Whilst they did sleep in love's Elysium."

Explore more quotes by John Ashbery

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John Ashbery
"I write with experiences in mind, but I don't write about them, I write out of them."
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John Ashbery
"There is the view that poetry should improve your life. I think people confuse it with the Salvation Army."
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John Ashbery
"I don't look on poetry as closed works. I feel they're going on all the time in my head and I occasionally snip off a length."
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John Ashbery
"I like poems you can tack all over with a hammer and there are no hollow places."
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