Poetry isn't an efficient tool for preserving experience, any more than it's an efficient mode of communication, but who says that it… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
Maybe because I can't even put together an IKEA desk, I've never been tempted to think of my own poems as built… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
Years ago I used to set my alarm for 4 am, so that I could wake up in the middle of a… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
I like poems that immediately claim my attention, instead of taking my attention for granted. At first read, I want to feel… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
I like poems that affect me emotionally and also provoke me to further, deeper thought. I enjoy challenge, but not, I think,… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
In my case, performance is part of the medium. Sometimes I feel that it's my main medium, and that the presentation of… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
I often write from memory by walking around and talking to myself. Even when I'm working at a computer I write out… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
When I'm most deeply involved in my writing, sometimes I do dream about poetry, and occasionally I wake up from a dream… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
I can't read my poem "Distracted by an Ergonomic Bicycle" without thinking of Seattle, where the events of the poem took place,… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
It is hard to compare cultures without overgeneralizing, but I think a lot of American poetry has an assertiveness - an upbeat… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
My dad, a mathematician, raised me to believe that mathematics is beautiful, so math is a part of my imaginative terrain. In… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
I try not to think in terms of what poems or poets should do. Most of us appreciate a wide diversity in… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
And treating poetry as a performing art emphasizes its ephemerality. A printed poem can be endlessly reprinted, photocopied, scanned, uploaded, cut and… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
I want each poem to be ambiguous enough that its meaning can shift, depending on the reader's own frame of reference, and… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
If art doesn't require an audience, can an intimate conversation be a work of art? Can a thought be a work of… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
I believe strongly in what John Keats called negative capability: the trait or practice that allows a poet to remain in uncertainties,… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
I wrote the poems in Charms Against Lightning one by one, over almost a decade, and I did not write them toward… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
For me, poetry is a way of thinking, and like many poets, I'm driven by the idea of trying to find the… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
I don't think I did write any poems to fill narrative gaps. Not consciously, anyway. As much as possible, I try to… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
I want to reiterate that my understanding of the poem is not the poem's core, true meaning. Once a poem goes out… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
I don't think I'd ever get any better as a poet if I didn't push myself, very deliberately, to grow. My best… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
Our analytical faculties allow us to look critically at our writing and interpret it. Sometimes we make bold, impulsive edits to our… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
If poems very different from my own bring pleasure to a group of readers, who am I to say that the poems… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
When I started reciting my own poems in public, I worried that it would seem too theatrical, but now I find recitation… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
It's not realistic to imagine that any poem will last forever. Our species won't last forever! We try to capture and preserve… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
I don't see why a poem couldn't be spoken out a car window or written on the beach at low tide. In… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
When you recite you're giving a performance, in the way that an actor or a singer performs, and some poets are not… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
It's true, there aren't many explicit references to Canada in my book. And not many explicit references to the U.S., either. I… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
I do like Canadian poetry. Christian Bök, Anne Carson, Carmine Starnino, and Don McKay are a few of the Canadian poets whose… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
Me and my mum didn't see eye-to-eye for a lot of years, and I've never really felt connected with my dad, because he wasn't… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
I'm a mix; I'm sure some of my Canadian friends find me very American, both in person and on the page. — James Arthur Copy Share Image
I often write from memory by walking around and talking to myself. Even when I'm working at a computer I write out loud, so… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
I'd like to think that maybe the average person is rational, and they realise that I'm not this crazy monster that, at times, I've… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
It can feel like your whole world is caving in on you, and if you don't speak about it, it gets worse. You have… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
If art doesn't require an audience, can an intimate conversation be a work of art? Can a thought be a work of art? Maybe.… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
And treating poetry as a performing art emphasizes its ephemerality. A printed poem can be endlessly reprinted, photocopied, scanned, uploaded, cut and pasted -… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
I want each poem to be ambiguous enough that its meaning can shift, depending on the reader's own frame of reference, and depending on… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
People were telling me it was refreshing I was real because previous 'X Factor' winners were too afraid to say anything. I decided to… — James Arthur Copy Share Image
