Checks Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Poetry is a life-cherishing force.

— Mary Oliver

Poetry has a way of teaching one what one needs to know ... if one is honest.

— May Sarton

Poem in other words may or may not result from inspiration but must (in reader and author alike) produce it--

— Franz Wright

Poetry is the eloquence of verse.

— William C. Bryant

Poetry is only secondarily about words. Primarily, it is about truth. I dealt with the Ding an Sich, the substance behind the shadow, weaving…

— Dan Simmons

Good poetry is like effective prayer, it feeds the human spirit, it nourishes, it puts us in touch with forces far greater than ourselves

— Lorna Goodison

The more that accrues, the more depth, weight, and breadth we can bring to the poems, which we then need to throw overboard so…

— Dorianne Laux

Poetry is essentially the discovery, the love, the passion for the name of everything.

— Gertrude Stein

Poetry has done enough when it charms, but prose must also convince.

— H. L. Mencken

Poetry is simply the most beautiful, impressive, and widely effective mode of saying things.

— Matthew Arnold

Poetry teaches us music, metaphor, condensation and specificity.

— Walter Mosley

Sometimes a word or an argument will trigger a poem.

— Ama Ata Aidoo