"My obsession with time informs my poetry so completely it is hard for me to summarize it. We want time to pass, for new things to happen to us, we want to hold on to certain moments, we don't want our lives to end."

Poetry, Time, End, Moments

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"My obsession with time informs my poetry so completely it is hard for me to summarize it. We want time to pass, for new things to happen to us, we want to hold on to certain moments, we don't want our lives to end."

Exlpore more Poetry quotes

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

Gustave Flaubert, French Novelist

Poetry, Geometry, May

"I wish I could wrap up the glitter star-green of this moment and hand it to you like an angel gift. Give you the heat lightning flying in jagged silence over the distant mountains. And the smell of September prairie grass and the even fainter scent of October pine now descending . . ."

Carew Papritz, American Author

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"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."

Ian Hamilton Finlay, Scottish Poet

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

Julie Kagawa, American Author

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"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."

Edgar Allan Poe, American Poet

Poetry, Imagination, Fantasy, Creativity, Thought

"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."

J. R. R. Tolkien, English Novelist

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

Edith Hamilton, American Writer

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

W. H. Auden, English Poet

Poetry, Dream, Literature, Creativity

"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?"

W. H. Auden, English Poet

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

Adrian Mitchell, British Poet

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Explore more quotes by John Barton

"I have been told by a member of the board of one of Canada's most prominent literary magazines that a submission of mine once caused a great deal of controversy."

Society, Canada, Controversy, Literary

"Most victims of my autobiographical verse are either far too polite, remarkably understanding unaware that I have written poems about them."

Poems, Understanding, Victims

"Poets can't resist the dramatic pull of their lives and so inevitably write autobiographical verse."

Poet, Poets

"Who is the ideal reader? God only knows."

God,

"Reading should be a repeat performance."

Reading, Performance

"The community of poets I belong to is not as close as it used to be, if only for the fact that our lives have become busier: jobs, children, and the like."

Family, Children, Community, Fact, Jobs

"Writing can sometimes be exploitative. I like to take a few steps of remove in order to respect the privacy of the subject. If readers make the link, they have engaged with the poem."

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"We are comfortable with the fact that we cannot know personally what happened in the world before we were born, yet we are uncomfortable with the notion that we will stop engaging with time at some point in the future."

Time, Fact, Future, Will

"An experienced reader uses the poem as an agent of inquiry. This makes poetry very exciting, unstable, and interactive."

Poetry,

"Poetry is but another form of inquiry into the nature of phenomena, using with its own unique procedures and tools."

Nature, Poetry, Tools