Poetry is a special use of language that opens onto the real. The business of the poet is truth telling, which is why in the Celtic tradition no one could be a teacher unless he or she was a poet.
Huston Smith

I cannot speak for more than an hour exclusively about poetry. At that point, life itself takes over again.
Wislawa Szymborska

Poetic talent doesn't operate in a vacuum. There is a spirit of Polish poetry.
Wislawa Szymborska

In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite.
Paul Dirac

I do not see how a man can work on the frontiers of physics and write poetry at the same time. They are in opposition.
Paul Dirac

The sort of poetry I seek resides in objects man can't touch.
E. M. Forster

Poetry is emotion put into measure. The emotion must come by nature, but the measure can be acquired by art.
Thomas Hardy

Rap is poetry to music, like beatniks without beards and bongos.
David Lee Roth

When superstition is allowed to perform the task of old age in dulling the human temperament, we can say goodbye to all excellence in poetry, in painting, and in music.
Denis Diderot

Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild.
Denis Diderot

Poetry; a criticism of life under the conditions fixed for such a criticism by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty.
Matthew Arnold

Poetry is simply the most beautiful, impressive, and widely effective mode of saying things.
Matthew Arnold

Rap is poetry set to music. But to me it's like a jackhammer.
Bette Midler

I've written some poetry I don't understand myself.
Carl Sandburg

Poetry is the opening and closing of a door, leaving those who look through to guess about what is seen during the moment.
Carl Sandburg

When I was writing pretty poor poetry, this girl with midnight black hair told me to go on.
Carl Sandburg

We read Robert Browning's poetry. Here we needed no guidance from the professor: the poems themselves were enough.
Carl Sandburg

Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits.
Carl Sandburg

Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away.
Carl Sandburg

Sometimes the beauty is easy. Sometimes you don't have to try at all. Sometimes you can hear the wind blow in a handshake. Sometimes there's poetry written right on the bathroom wall.
Ani DiFranco