“There are now about 200 graduate creative-writing programs in the United States, and more than a thousand undergraduate ones. With an average of ten poetry students in each graduate section, these programs alone will produce about 20,000 accredited professional poets … Continue reading →

“Death, of course, is popular with us. To major in English is to major in death.”

“What is it about poets? Even in the pantheon of troubled artists, poets tend to be perceived as singularly despairing and subject to bad ends.”

“this small and fragile enterprise, contemporary poetry”

“Kay Boyle, late of San Francisco State, opined in these pages not long ago that all creative writing programs ought to be abolished by law.”

“Kay Boyle once published a piece arguing that ‘all creative-writing programs ought to be abolished by law.’ She taught creative writing for sixteen years at San Francisco State.”

“Creative-writing programs are designed on the theory that students who have never published a poem can teach other students who have never published a poem how to write a publishable poem.”

“I’ve got poetry in my fingertips.”

“The work of art is not a gem, as some schools of criticism would insist, but truly a lens… We look through it for the purified and honestly offered spirit of the artist.”

“Poetry is where the music of language exists and language is half articulation of meanings and it’s half bearers of feeling.”

“I now freely and openly attest to the virtues of National Poetry Month in throwing a national spotlight on poetry, so crucial to keeping verse alive in the twenty-first century.”

Ninety percent of Americans highly value poetry and believe it enriches the lives of those who read it. Thirteen percent of Americans read it.

“The image of the writer as a doomed and sometimes tragic figure, bound to die young, can be backed up by research….. Among the entire sample, poets died younger than both fiction writers and non-fiction writers (p

“Prose is words in their best order. Poetry is the best words in the best order.”

“Poetry has vanished as a cultural force in America.”

“Americans feel that poetry significantly contributes to their understanding and appreciation of life, and that people who read poetry lead more engaged and satisfying social lives than those who don’t….. fully two-thirds of respondents believe that society would benefit if … Continue reading →

“The purpose of poetry is to contribute to man’s happiness.”

“It begins in delight… and ends in a clarification of life — not necessarily a great clarification… but in a momentary stay against confusion.”

“To write a poem after Auschwitz is barbaric… it has become impossible to write poetry today.”

“In a society where poetry is marginalized, why do some people give their lives to it?”

“Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.”

“Ninety-nine percent of the world actually experiences poetry, their own poetry… lovers when they talk to each other may talk poetry… a kiss can be poetry.”

“Poetry is indeed something divine.”

“Poetry is a controlled refinement of sobbing. We’ve got to face that.”

“I want to know what makes poets burn.”

There are two kinds of people in America – poetry users and poetry non-users.

“If it is a wild tune, it is a Poem.”