"I think that concrete poetry seems to have, as far as I can see, come to a kind of a dead end. It doesn't seem to be going any further than it went in its high period of about five or six years ago."

Poetry, End, Years

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"I think that concrete poetry seems to have, as far as I can see, come to a kind of a dead end. It doesn't seem to be going any further than it went in its high period of about five or six years ago."

Exlpore more Poetry quotes

"The young people have MTV and rock and roll. Why would they go to read poetry? Poetry belongs to the Stone Age. It awakens in us perceptions that go back to those times."

Robert Morgan, American Soldier

Poetry, Age, People, Perceptions

"I don't think American poetry has gotten any better in the past 35 years. Oddly enough, creative writing programs seem to have been good for fiction, and I would not have predicted that."

Robert Morgan, American Soldier

Poetry, Fiction, Past

"I would say that American poetry has always been a poetry of personal testimony."

Mark Strand, American Poet

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"A great many people seem to think writing poetry is worthwhile, even though it pays next to nothing and is not as widely read as it should be."

Mark Strand, American Poet

Poetry, People, Nothing, Writing

"In the grueling light that passed for day..."

Cormac McCarthy, American Writer

Poetry, Light, Life, Description

"And at least in poetry you should feel free to lie. That is, not to lie, but to imagine what you want, to follow the direction of the poem."

Mark Strand, American Poet

Poetry, Lie, Direction, Want

"That orbed maiden with white fire laden Whom mortals call the moon."

Percy Bysshe Shelley, English Poet

Poetry, Nature, Beauty, Imagery

"I certainly can't speak for all cultures or all societies, but it's clear that in America, poetry serves a very marginal purpose. It's not part of the cultural mainstream."

Mark Strand, American Poet

Poetry, Purpose, America

"Sweet as the tender fragrance that survives,When martyred flowers breathe out their little lives,Sweet as a song that once consoled our pain,But never will be sung to us again,Is they remembrance. Now the hour of restHath come to thee. Sleep, darling: it is best."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American Poet

Poetry, Remembrance, Sadness, Love, Beauty

"Poetry is, first and last, language - the rest is filler."

Mark Strand, American Poet

Poetry, First, Language, Rest

Explore more quotes by James Laughlin

"I do read everything that we publish. We usually have to have two or three votes for a book before we take it on. So in that sense I suppose it is an orchestra."

Sense

"It's all well and good to say that Germans were all responsible for the concentration camps, but I don't think they were. I think that was the work of a small group of fiends."

Work

"The German experience, as you can see, did move me very much. Seeing that terrible destruction and seeing the miserable state of the people, how they had been beaten down by the war through no fault of their own probably."

War

"Every now and then, I strike something that just goes click, you know, in my head. As Gertrude Stein used to say, it rings the bell, and I feel, this is great."

Now

"I think one ages and one dates. I tend to have a good deal of difficulty in liking some of the new poets."

Literature

"Of course a poem is a two-way street. No poem is any good if it doesn't suggest to the reader things from his own mind and recollection that he will read into it, and will add to what the poet has suggested. But I do think poetry readings are very important."

Poetry

"We do very little re-writing in the office. We often take on people who show great promise and who we hope will develop into somebody important and someone good."

People

"There are numerous cases of that, where one of our writers discovers another writer whom he likes, and we then take that book on. So it's a very close relationship. We can do that because we're so small."

Literature

"Concrete poets continue to turn out beautiful things, but to me they're more visual than oral, and they almost really belong on the wall rather than in a book. I haven't the least idea of where poetry is going."

Poetry

"Then, of course, there are those sad occasions when a poet or a writer has not grown, and one has to let them go because they're just not making headway. But we have a very clear personal relationship with the authors."

Literature