Poetry is a packsack of invisible keepsakes.

Poetry is a packsack of invisible keepsakes.

To have great poets, there must be great audiences too.

To have great poets, there must be great audiences too.

The poet is in the end probably more afraid of the dogmatist who wants to extract the message from the read more

The poet is in the end probably more afraid of the dogmatist who wants to extract the message from the poem and throw the poem away than he is of the sentimentalist who says, "Oh, just let me enjoy the poem.".

Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.

Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.

As civilization advances, poetry almost necessarily declines.

As civilization advances, poetry almost necessarily declines.

CONSIDERING THE VOID
When I behold the charm
of evening skies, their lulling endurance;
the patterns of stars with read more

CONSIDERING THE VOID
When I behold the charm
of evening skies, their lulling endurance;
the patterns of stars with names
of bears and dogs, a swan, a virgin;
other planets that the Voyager showed
were like and so unlike our own,
with all their diverse moons,
bright discs, weird rings, and cratered faces;
comets with their streaming tails
bent by pressure from our sun;
the skyscape of our Milky Way
holding in its shimmering disc
an infinity of suns
(or say a thousand billion);
knowing there are holes of darkness
gulping mass and even light,
knowing that this galaxy of ours
is one of multitudes
in what we call the heavens,
it troubles me. It troubles me.
-President Jimmy Carter- (he has written a volume of poetry as well as a novel, The Hornet's Nest,
about the Revolutionary War).

For it is not metres, but a metre-making argument that makes a
poem.

For it is not metres, but a metre-making argument that makes a
poem.

The poet is the priest of the invisible.

The poet is the priest of the invisible.

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.