Generation Quote by Donovan

Poetry is the enemy of the poem.

— Stanley Kunitz

Poetry is man's rebellion against being what he is.

— James Branch Cabell

So, poetry becomes a means for useful dialogue between people who are not only unknown, but mute to each other. It produces a dialogue…

— June Jordan

People in power tend to find poetry dangerous to them because it is dislocating, they can't catch it, can't control it. They prefer coherence,…

— Elia Suleiman

What poetry does above all else is develop sensibility. And that's what makes poetry so dangerous. That's why poetry is so good at undermining…

— Sam Hamill

“Poetry was a way to combat the staid and formulaic language of politicians that opposed the flexible and dynamic language of poets and writers.”

— Azar Nafisi

We fall into the old stuff of textuality, and almost everything becomes safe because nobody wants to talk about what is not safe in…

— Fady Joudah

“In the beginning was the word, and primitive societies venerated poets second only to their leaders. A poet had the power to name and…

— Kevin Crossley-Holland

I know that in a poem, even when the speaker is speaking from the poet's experience, there's always something that's borrowed, some authority that…

— Tracy K. Smith

Poets are political, they have to be reflections of their times [because] they're living in their times... Poetry is political in that it's standing…

— John Cusack

“Remember, words are the enemy of poetry.”

— Russell Edson

But there is some way in which poets believe that and this is dangerous, too believe that their calling gives them a certain freedom.…

— Peter Davison