Cubes Quote by Rita Dove

A good poem is an amazing thing: a perfectly distilled, articulate moment. It opens you up - sometimes slowly, like the blooming of a…

— Celeste Ng

a poem is like a wine glass in which you can hold up a little bit of reality and taste it.

— Gwen Harwood

A poem can use anything to talk about anything.

— Jane Hirshfield

A really good poem is full of music.

— Eric Whitacre

I think a good poem should have some inscrutable part. You can't quite explain it. The poem can only explain itself to a certain…

— Billy Collins

I've been writing a lot of poetry recently. It helps me think and work things out.

— Ed Westwick

Poetry is the hardest thing that there is. It fascinates me, so I want to write more of it.

— Steve Earle

Poetry is like fish: if it's fresh, it's good; if it's stale, it's bad; and if you're not certain, try it on the cat.

— Osbert Sitwell

Durable, memorable poetry is usually alert to complexity. A really good poem gives you a reason to read it 20 times, because the language…

— Stephen Burt

The main thing a poem ought to be is musical. It should be rhythmic. You should hear it as a musical piece in your…

— John Cooper Clarke

A poem is good if it contains a new analogy and startles the reader out of the habit of treating words as counters.

— T. E. Hulme

“A poem isn't a good poem, until you need it.”

— J. David Gray