Computer Quote by Matthew Zapruder

Usually form seems to find me in the process of writing a poem, though I have nothing against starting out with the form.

— Matthea Harvey

Form is any aspect of a poem that encourages it to stay whole and not drift off into chaos.

— Billy Collins

I see the shape of the poem before I start writing, and the writing is just the process of arriving at the shape.

— Carol Ann Duffy

The form I most enjoy writing is the sonnet or sonnet-like forms, where you have a - you know, three stanzas or two stanzas…

— Sherman Alexie

I can never plan out what direction my poems will take in terms of either form or content. I wish I could but it…

— Elaine Equi

I started then to try and shape something rather than just express it and when I started to shape something and to imitate other…

— Edward Hirsch

The process of writing a poem represents work done on the self of the poet, in order to make form.

— Muriel Rukeyser

I don't know where the shape of a poem comes from. I certainly don't impose it. I write out of a jumble of emotions…

— Michael Longley

For me, the Bild-Dichtung [image-poem] is the ideal form, because the drawing process is constantly being interrupted or contrasted by the writing. And since…

— Gunter Brus

I have to make myself write, sometimes. In the space between poems, you somehow forget how to do it, where to begin. It was…

— Simon Armitage

When you work in form, be it a sonnet or villanelle or whatever, the form is there and you have to fill it. And…

— Ursula K. Le Guin

The tougher the form the easier it is for me to handle the poem, because the form gives permission to be very gut honest…

— Maxine Kumin