I don't know if anyone has ever mentioned this, we need to be careful with drugs! They're not just all fun and… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
This, in the end, might be the greatest social good of poetry: to get us to live differently, with a different sort… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
Somewhere back a whiskey or so ago I wrote that thinking was a real thing in the world, just like anything else.… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
So for whatever reason those short lines just felt right to me, in my physical self. They were right for the movement… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
All my closest friends came to me through poetry. My wife, too! Other than my family, poetry is the gravitational force of… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
That choice to be ready to reject all other purposes, in favor of the possibilities of language freed from utility, is when… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
I guess my poems feel to me a bit like they are doing something in relation to experience, i.e. time. — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
It may very well be that we have entered another time when most poets will feel compelled to use poetry to stop… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
I'm more than a little suspicious of humor in poems, because I think it can at times be a way of getting… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
I think it is our job as poets to refuse the terms that society so often sets for usefulness. That, for instance,… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
Reading a poem is a real thing, a worthy thing. So to be there right with the reader at that moment is… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
I would like to try to write poetry that would do everything I wanted poems to do, but also be readable by… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
Thinking in prose is different. I gained an immense amount of respect for people who write prose, and also felt even more… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
The question does arise if how and why to write poetry in this time. It feels both completely essential and also quite… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
If freedom in the imagination is a privilege, it's one I believe everyone should have, as a basic human right. I also… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
What poetry is asking us to accept can be difficult. Our proximity to our mortality, the fragility of our existence, how close… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
When I saw the sun bears at the Oakland Zoo, I immediately was drawn to them. Not to be ornery, but regarding… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
I don't think poetry needs to be "easily understandable." First of all, there are often complexities of syntax, form, unfamiliar absences, etc.,… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
That is a horrible thing in a way, but it is the one thing poets can bring back to experience, this intense… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
I've noticed that there can be a visceral reaction to strong statements about poetry, as if anyone who has an opinion and… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
My own experience as a reader and writer has been that the more I read, and the more I live, the more… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
I personally believe the role of poets as poets (which is something different from our obligations as citizens, community members, humans) is… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
Keats's odes are among my favorite poems ever. As are Neruda's. So yes, I think my poems are odes, though I really… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
It is absolutely vital to preserve a space where the mind, by means of poetic thinking, can move in a free, even… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
The speaker tentatively reaches out with that feeling and realizes that it's kind of absurd, or at least a dangerous consolation, which… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
A poem is like a person. The more you know someone, the more you realize there is always something more to know… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
I wanted to write not exclusively for (or against) poets or scholars, though many of them are people, too! But that was… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
That being said, some of my favorite poets are extremely funny. The aforementioned Matt Rohrer, for instance. Mary Ruefle. James Tate might… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
There is all this stuff about how sensitive poets are and how in touch with feelings, etc. they are, but really all… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
I am intrigued and even moved by the idea of being right with the reader in the actuality that she or he… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
Milton on speed. I am going to need about a decade to think about that. That delay in syntax, the putting off… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
For me, form is something I locate in the process of writing the poems. What I mean is, I start scribbling, and… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
I was thinking a little bit about this very thing - poetry and music - the other day when I was listening… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
Today is such a strange day. The news is out about the Russians and mini-Donald. This seems like a turning point, but… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
I just know from experience that reading a funny poem aloud, especially at the beginning of a public reading, can have a… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
It is funny, and also a bit sad, that poets are so often asked to justify our vocation. There seems to be… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
[My poems] of course, it's symbolic, in the way that things in a poem can be - that is, pointing to something… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
I've always been more than a little mystified by poets who seem to think talking to people as directly as possible is… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share Image
It is funny, and also a bit sad, that poets are so often asked to justify our vocation. There seems to be something vaguely… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share
The question does arise if how and why to write poetry in this time. It feels both completely essential and also quite difficult. But… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share
That name, SUN BEAR, just sounds like an ideogram to me. Super resonant. By the way, this all might be related to Tomaž Šalamun's… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share
Music and songs have always been a constant part of my life, and still are. My brother Michael, who is a songwriter and composer,… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share
My own experience as a reader and writer has been that the more I read, and the more I live, the more different "types"… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share
Thinking in prose is different. I gained an immense amount of respect for people who write prose, and also felt even more sure that… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share
Something can be symbolic without being a mere stand-in or vessel, which just brings us away from the true mystery and dread, into some… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share
It may very well be that we have entered another time when most poets will feel compelled to use poetry to stop things from… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share
The speaker tentatively reaches out with that feeling and realizes that it's kind of absurd, or at least a dangerous consolation, which is what… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share
I've noticed that there can be a visceral reaction to strong statements about poetry, as if anyone who has an opinion and expresses it… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share
Somewhere back a whiskey or so ago I wrote that thinking was a real thing in the world, just like anything else. I mean… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share
If freedom in the imagination is a privilege, it's one I believe everyone should have, as a basic human right. I also believe that… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share
So for whatever reason those short lines just felt right to me, in my physical self. They were right for the movement of the… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share
I wanted to write not exclusively for (or against) poets or scholars, though many of them are people, too! But that was not my… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share
Reading a poem is a real thing, a worthy thing. So to be there right with the reader at that moment is part of… — Matthew Zapruder Copy Share
![“[My poems] of course, it's symbolic, in the way that things in a poem can be - that is, pointing to something beyond its mere ordinary meaning, while also retaining all the qualities of that ordinary meaning. In other words, it's a bear, but it's also suggesting something else, just by virtue of…” quote by Matthew Zapruder](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/0c5/matthew-zapruder-12762_attention_my-poems-of-course-it-s-symbolic-in-the_995918.jpg)
