Arguing Quote by Claudia Rankine

For me, poetry has no point in existing if it's not to be a prompt or aid to political and ethical change.

— John Kinsella

Poetry is rather an approach to things, to life, than it is typographical production.

— Joseph Brodsky

We tend to be so bombarded with information, and we move so quickly, that there's a tendency to treat everything on the surface level…

— Rita Dove

“Poetry is a niche genre, sure, but it has a way of opening people up. It opens me up. As with music and art,…

— Nicholas Trandahl

Poetry takes you into the recesses of the language, the neglected corners, cracks and crannies and to the big sky of wonder. It opens…

— C.D. Wright

I do not think [poetry] is more, or less, necessary than food, shelter, health, education, decent working conditions. It is as necessary.

— Adrienne Rich

Poetry is a serious business; literature is the apparatus through which the world tries to keep intact its important ideas and feelings.

— Mary Oliver

By definition, poetry works with qualities and dynamics that mainstream society is reluctant to face head-on. It's an interesting phenomenon that by necessity, poetry…

— David Whyte

There's very little of the intentional about the business of writing poetry, as least as far as I can see.

— Paul Muldoon

On the one hand poetry is useless. It can't change the world materially. On the other hand it is a basic part of human…

— Bei Dao

Poetry asks people to have values, form opinions, care about some other part of experience besides making money and being successful on the job.

— Toi Derricotte

Poetry is a kind of ingenious nonsense.

— Isaac Newton