Age Quote by Rita Dove

I think I had gotten messages really young that poetry wasn't for me, that it was for, basically, some dead white men. My experience…

— Jacqueline Woodson

Young poets worry that their experiences - whether urban or rural, immigrant or native, small town, suburb, or big city - aren't worthy of…

— Allison Joseph

I have to admit that I had a lot of problems with poetry.

— Jane Campion

“I speak here of poetry as a revelatory distillation of experience, not the sterile word play that, too often, the white fathers distorted the…

— Audre Lorde

I think my poems immediately come out of the sensuous and emotional experiences I have.

— Sylvia Plath

When I was younger, I was so crazy about poetry that I didn't notice who was noticing. It seemed to me so tremendous and…

— Robert Hass

“Poetry can unleash a terrible fear. I suppose it is the fear of possibilities, too many possibilities, each with its own endless set of…

— Jim Carroll

The fear of poetry is an indication that we are cut off from our own reality.

— Muriel Rukeyser

I'm uncomfortable with the focus on the poet and not on the poem.

— Yusef Komunyakaa

Sometimes my poetry is an attempt to keep off existential terror; sometimes it is a grappling with philosophical problems; sometimes just fun.

— Gwen Harwood

I think I felt at some point that I couldn't understand poetry or that it was beyond me or it didn't speak to my…

— Natasha Trethewey

Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them.

— Charles Simic