Building Quote by Sam Hamill

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

By definition, poetry works with qualities and dynamics that mainstream society is reluctant to face head-on. It's an interesting phenomenon that by necessity, poetry…

— David Whyte

I think of poetry as something out there in the world and within each of us. I don't mean that everyone can write poetry…

— Adrienne Rich

Poetry is a dangerous profession between conflict and resolution, between feeling and thought, between becoming and being, between the ultra-personal and the universal -…

— May Sarton

Poetry is basically built out of what I think of as being a fairly political act at its core: "I'm not going to listen…

— Ted Genoways

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

Often poets fall into groups that exclude others, and don't pay attention to those who write in different ways. It seems so limited to…

— Martha Ronk

I don't believe that poetry is in danger because nobody wants to read it or appreciate it. There is a tremendous audience for it…

— Derek Walcott

Poetry is like walking along a little, tiny, narrow ridge up on a precipice. You never know the next step, whether there's going to…

— Josephine Jacobsen

Poetry is the way into a spiritual vision of society and the universe.

— Camille Paglia

Probably the best nonsense poetry is produced gradually and accidentally, by communities rather than by individuals.

— George Orwell

There is an idealism associated with poetry I would not dispel but question. It doesn't change anything except within. It shifts your insides around.…

— C.D. Wright