I am committed now to one thing: lyric sequences. I want the intensity of lyric, but the scope and arc of narrative.… — Gregory Orr Arcs Copy Share Image
No one can threaten poetry. It's always been there, always will be. Humans need it to live: it has sustaining powers. How… — Gregory Orr Adolescence Copy Share Image
I can't actually explain why my lines got shorter, but they did. Just as I can't explain why my early poems were… — Gregory Orr Abstract Copy Share Image
I want language to help us live in a world of wonder/terror/change. I want it to be about "becoming" rather than "being."… — Gregory Orr Becoming Copy Share Image
Another way of saying "put it in the Book" would be that each poem we write pops up in the city of… — Gregory Orr Another way Copy Share Image
I believe in poetry as a way of surviving the emotional chaos, spiritual confusions, and traumatic events that come with being alive. — Gregory Orr Alive Copy Share Image
Poetry is the thread that leads us out of the labyrinth of despair and into the light. — Gregory Orr Despair Copy Share Image
D.H. Lawrence says that myths are "inexhaustible" because they are symbols of heart mysteries. That is, they can't be exhausted - they… — Gregory Orr Body Copy Share Image
“Somehow something has gone wrong with poetry in our culture. We have lost touch with its purpose and value, and in doing… — Gregory Orr Poetry Copy Share Image
That's crudely put, but If we're not supposed to dance, Why all this music? — Gregory Orr Funny Copy Share Image
“Self-Portrait at Twenty" I stood inside myself like a dead tree or a tower. I pulled the rope of braided hair and… — Gregory Orr Painting Copy Share Image
Beauty is like life itself: a dawn mist the sun burns off. It gives no peace, no rest. — Gregory Orr Beautiful Copy Share Image
Rhyme as an echo not a closing off of sound. Love it. I don't know where the rhymes came from. Or the… — Gregory Orr Claims Copy Share Image
Speaking of people I had to exclude: Hank Williams. which is to say, songs are part of lyric poetry in my book,… — Gregory Orr Book Copy Share Image
"Similar but not the same" - that's like the return of the beloved for me. And metamorphosis: the spirit of the beloved… — Gregory Orr Beloved Copy Share Image
Whenever I read a poem that moves me, I know I'm not alone in the world. I feel a connection to the… — Gregory Orr Connections Copy Share Image
“Where would I be if not for your wild heart? I ask this not from love, but selfishly— how could I live?… — Gregory Orr Art Copy Share Image
With "poets dead and gone" as Keats says in "Mermaid Tavern" they are alive and talking to us and us to them. — Gregory Orr Alive Copy Share Image
To guide someone through the halls of hell is not the same as love. — Gregory Orr Guides Copy Share Image
In Eden I "saw" that Adam or Eve probably spoke each word FOR THE FIRST TIME and that seemed wild and seemed… — Gregory Orr Adam Copy Share Image
To me, poetry is about survival first of all. Survival of the individual self, survival of the emotional life. — Gregory Orr Emotional Copy Share Image
