...a poem is just a little machine for remembering itself
Look around - there's only one thing of danger for you here - poetry
I think poetry should be alive. You should be able to dance it.
Someone says: 'Whom do you write for?' I reply: 'Do you read me?' If they say 'yes', I say, 'Do you like it?' If they say 'No,' then I say, 'I don't write for you'.
Truly fine poetry must be read aloud. A good poem does not allow itself to be read in a low voice or silently. If we can read it silently, it is not a valid poem: a poem demands pronunciation. Poetry always remembers that it was an oral art before it was a written art. It remembers that it was first song.
Listen! If stars are lit It means there is someone who needs it, It means someone wants them to be, That someone deems those specks of spit Magnificent!
And nothing to look backward to with pride, And nothing to look forward to with hope.
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
Lay your sleeping head, my love, Human on my faithless arm.
The storm starts when the drops start dropping. The storm stops when the drops stop dropping.