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Poetry Quotes by Sarah Kay

42 Poetry quotes by Sarah Kay

All Poetry quotes Sarah Kay’s page

I use poetry to help me work through what I don’t understand, carrying a backpack full of everywhere else I’ve been. Kay notes that poetry can make people nervous in schools and that many think poets aren’t real artists unless paid. She also sees poems as a celebration of life.

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Poetry makes people nervous. Especially in schools.

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I write poems to figure things out

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Part of what I try to do in schools is take poetry off of a pedestal and make it a little more…

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“It is hard to stop loving the ocean, even after it has left you gasping.”

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My self-confidence can be measured out in teaspoons mixed into my poetry, and it still always tastes funny in my mouth.

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“My world was the size of a crayon box, and it took every colour to draw her”

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Not all poetry wants to be storytelling. And not all storytelling wants to be poetry. But great storytellers and great poets share…

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I want to welcome folks to poetry, especially those who may have previously felt unwelcome; I want to celebrate everyone who is…

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I often tell people to stop being afraid of writing bad poetry, or bad anything. I think that a lot of times,…

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Things that I have a hard time being able to fully grasp, sometimes writing the poem helps me work through it. Or…

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Nothing is as universal as some good scatalogical humor. I try to shift the frame in which people think about poetry from…

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I use poetry to help me work through what I don’t understand, but I show up to each new poem with a…

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When words become a poem, it makes sense to me, but I don't know how to explain to someone why the words…

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I write poetry to figure things out. Any time I’m trying to wrap my head around something, poetry is like a puzzle-solving…

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I have always thought of poetry as an act of celebration. Just by nature of writing a poem you are taking the…

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Poetry is like pooping. If there is a poem inside of you, it has to come out. Sometimes it can be really…

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Hiroshima”, I find a few of the lines to be very poignant yet hopeful. These lines are: “But in Hiroshima, some people…

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I think that poetry is an act of celebration, that anytime you're writing a poem, it means that you're celebrating something, even…

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But in Hiroshima, some people were wiped clean away, leaving only a wristwatch or a diary page. So no matter that I…

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If you know what you're looking for, the illustrations might give you a tip about what is coming in that section. But…

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Sometimes I am puzzling over something for months and months and the poem gets created in small bursts and rewritten a hundred…

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“And the spaces that he never saw: the ones my parents had labeled private parts when I was still small enough to…

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“I will wake you up early even though I know you like to stay through the credits. I will leave pennies in…

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“The Type Everyone needs a place. It shouldn't be inside of someone else. -Richard Siken If you grow up the type of…

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My first performance poem was about how sometimes I was teased for being manly, or a tomboy or whatever. It was saying…

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One thing that I believe is that every time I write something, I am taking the time to celebrate. Even if I…

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Poetry is like a puzzle-solving strategy for me. I like to poem my way through tricky questions and ideas. That's about the…

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Spoken word poetry is the art of performance poetry. I tell people it involves creating poetry that doesn't just want to sit…

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The first spoken word poem I ever wrote was when I was 14 and I wrote it because I was accidentally signed…

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“Remember that good things come in three's. And so do bad things. And always apologize when you've done something wrong. But don't…

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I fell in love with poetry through storytelling, so my poetry tends to be fairly narrative. I like characters, I like having…

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I think you can perform any poem. But what I believe is that the best examples of spoken word poetry I've ever…

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Sometimes the only way I know how to work through something is by writing a poem. And sometimes I get to the…

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Ever since I was little, I’ve loved making hand-made cards and presents and arts & crafts for people. The book gives me…

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I don't think I ever had a morning where I woke up and said I'm going to be a professional poet. I…

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I don't remember the first poem that I wrote because I've been creating poems since I was around 2 or 3. I…

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At this point in my life - age 24 - I have chosen a fairly strange path that not many are walking.…

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I write poetry to figure things out. It's what I use as a navigating tool in my life, so when there's something…

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“Still now I send letters into space Hoping that some mailman somewhere will track you down And recognise you from the descriptions…

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My falling in love with spoken word poetry definitely came out of that time period where all the adults around me were…

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More by Sarah Kay

It’s not just the adage ‘write what you know,’ it’s about gathering up all of the knowledge and experience you’ve collected up to now…

Thinking about writing as an act of celebration is sometimes a helpful framework for me. It allows me to prioritize what I want to…

I don't think it's about art being a career but it's about making sure that if art is something that you love, something that…

I use poetry to help me work through what I don’t understand, but I show up to each new poem with a backpack full…

“Once, she fell off of a ladder when I was three. She says all she was worried about was my face as I watched…

“I love you as much as the ocean kisses the shore no matter how many times it is sent away.”

I write poetry to figure things out. It's what I use as a navigating tool in my life, so when there's something that I…

Not all poetry wants to be storytelling. And not all storytelling wants to be poetry. But great storytellers and great poets share something in…

Poetry makes people nervous. Especially in schools.

There are parts of me I only recognize from photographs.

“What is it about immortality? With the right sword and shield, we think we can fend off anger, fear, and hatred. If our legs…

“And the spaces that he never saw: the ones my parents had labeled private parts when I was still small enough to fit all…

Think it's so unfair when people think that you're not a "real artist" unless you're getting paid for it…I personally know so many poets…

“There is a girl who still writes you; she doesn’t know how not to.”

My first spoken word poem, packed with all the wisdom of a 14-year-old, was about the injustice of being seen as unfeminine. The poem…