Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.

I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I'll die like a read more

I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I'll die like a poet.

The courage of the Poet is to keep ajar the door that leads into madness.

The courage of the Poet is to keep ajar the door that leads into madness.

morning: that first sapphire dome of glow.

morning: that first sapphire dome of glow.

All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.

All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.

Poetry is a packsack of invisible keepsakes.

Poetry is a packsack of invisible keepsakes.

I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I read more

I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out.

For there is no heroic poem in the world but is at bottom a
biography, the life of a read more

For there is no heroic poem in the world but is at bottom a
biography, the life of a man; also, it may be said, there is no
life of a man, faithfully recorded, but is a heroic poem of its
sort, rhymed or unrhymed.

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).