Talk:Poetry

Right now, almost all of featured quotes with photos on this page are from lightskinned males

• It seems like it would be more balanced and less political if we equally represented men and women, as well as people from each continent if this page is meant to represent poetry worldwide and not limited to certain subcultures in the west. I will be adding quotes about art by women of color to the page, but I'm not sure about appropriate ways to make adjustments to which quotes are featured prominently vs not A23423413 (talk) 17:14, 1 July 2023 (UTC)

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• All poets are superior/ To 'Rithmetic's best guys./ They work with all the Alphabet/ Not just the 'X' and 'y'
  • J. Byron Kennedy

• Poetry is this screaming madwoman. Everything seems poetry. Madmen gaze high. Everything seems madness. Madmen fear no moon, fear no fire. Burns of flesh are poetry. Madmen's wounds are poetry. The witch's crime was poetry. Magic knew how to find its poetry. The star wasn't poetry before the madwoman discovered it.
  • Giannina Braschi

• To cut the Gordian knot is not the same as to untie it. Children and lunatics cut what the poet patiently spends his life in trying to untie.
  • Jean Cocteau

• I think one of poetry's functions is not to give us what we want... [T]he poet isn't always of use to the tribe. The tribe thrives on the consensual. The tribe is pulling together to face the intruder who threatens it. Meanwhile, the poet is sitting by himself in the graveyard talking to a skull.
  • Heather McHugh

• Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.
  • Leonard Cohen

• Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.
  • Rita Dove

• Poetry is plucking at the heartstrings, and making music with them.
  • Dennis Gabor

• Poetry is the best of any language.
  • Nathaniel Wenger

• Poetry is the one place where people can speak their original human mind. It is the outlet for people to say in public what is known in private.
  • Allen Ginsberg

• The poet doesn't invent. He listens.
  • Jean Cocteau

• You will find poetry nowhere unless you bring some of it with you.
  • Joseph Joubert