No good poem, however confessional it may be, is just a self-expression. Who on earth would claim that the pearl expresses the… — Anonymous Copy Share Image
A good poem is like a bouillon cube. It's concentrated and it nourishes you when you need it. — Rita Dove Copy Share Image
“I reckon a good poem lasts a whole lot longer than a hundred of those people put together.” — Sylvia Plath Copy Share Image
“A good poem doesn't need to rhyme or have fancy words. It needs to touch the reader, hug them when arms cannot… — Goldie Nanwani Copy Share Image
A good poem is not completely a poem until it has received a critical response that grows out of the poem in… — Michael Longley Copy Share Image
“The words of a good book may be profuse, but the words of a good poem are profound.” — Gregory John Copy Share Image
It’s a good poem if I’m a different person when I’m finished reading it. — Brandon Stanton Copy Share Image
“One should, each day, try to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if possible, speak… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
A good poem is an amazing thing: a perfectly distilled, articulate moment. It opens you up - sometimes slowly, like the blooming… — Celeste Ng Copy Share Image
I was a better writer when I was teaching. I was constantly going over the basics and constantly reminding myself, as I… — Gil Scott-Heron Copy Share Image
You must believe: a poem is a holy thing - a good poem, that is. The poem, even a short time after… — Theodore Roethke Copy Share Image
A good poem has its own life. It's like bringing a child into the world. You, the poet, birthed the child, but… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
“How do your poems start out?” “They start as a lump in the throat,” she said. “Isn’t that normally just a cocktail… — Louise Penny Copy Share Image
A teacher who can arouse a feeling for one single good action, for one single good poem, accomplishes more than he who… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
I think a good poem should have some inscrutable part. You can't quite explain it. The poem can only explain itself to… — Billy Collins Copy Share Image
... mathematics is very much like poetry ... what makes a good poem -- a great poem -- is that there is… — Lipman Bers Copy Share Image
“A poem is a windy city, has broad shoulders and insistent industry, barrels into your brain, sticking its steam-filled, swarmy head into… — B.J. Ward Copy Share Image
“The fact that a good poem will never wholly submit to explanation is not its deficiency but its very life. One lives… — John Ciardi Copy Share Image
“Ted: A fucking good poem is a weapon. It's-- and not like a-- a popgun or something. - It's a bomb. It's… — John Brownlow Copy Share Image
I write first drafts with only the good angel on my shoulder, the voice that approves of everything I write. This voice… — Georgia Heard Copy Share Image
A successful poem says what a poet wants to say, and more, with particular finality. The remarks he makes about his poems… — Randall Jarrell 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
“To write or read a poem is . . . to enter into a different kind of thought world from our normal… — N.T. Wright Copy Share Image
A good poem is a tautology. It expands one word by adding a number which clarify it, thus making a new word… — Alasdair Gray Copy Share Image
“The bad news is your flaws don’t come from nowhere. The world is deeply fucked from every angle; its damage is incomprehensibly… — Emma Healey Copy Share Image
“How hard it is, to be forced to the conclusion that people should be, nine tenths of the time, left alone! -… — Philip Larkin Copy Share Image
“It is, of course, we who house poems as much as their words, and we ourselves must be the locus of poetry's… — Jane Hirshfield Copy Share Image
“Do you know what a poem is, Esther?' No, what?' I would say. A piece of dust.' Then, just as he was… — Sylvia Plath Copy Share Image
“Now, lying on my back in bed, I imagined Buddy saying, ‘Do you know what a poem is, Esther?’ ‘No, what?’ I… — Sylvia Plath Copy Share Image
Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak… — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Copy Share Image
“Dismantle the sun, pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods: For nothing now can ever come to any good…” The… — Lori Ryan Copy Share Image
A good poem looks life straight in the face, unflinching, sincere, equal to revelation through loss or gain. — David Whyte Copy Share Image
The ingredients that make a good poem often differ from those that make a good essay and from those that make a… — Kathleen Rooney Copy Share Image
