Conversation may be compared to a lyre with seven chords - philosophy, art, poetry, love, scandal, and the weather.

Poetry is one of the few nasty childhood habits I've managed to grow out of.

I despair of ever writing excellent poetry.

I will not leave a corner of my consciousness covered up, but saturate myself with the strange and extraordinary new conditions of this life, and it will all refine itself into poetry later on.

Nobody ever told me what to read, or ever put poetry in my way.

If I do a poetry reading I want people to walk out and say they feel better for having been there - not because you've done a comedy performance but because you're talking about your father dying or having young children, things that touch your soul.

Whereas with poetry no one has to show anybody really, and you don't have to tell anyone you're doing it.

What she did was to open our eyes to details of country life such as teaching us names of wild flowers and getting us to draw and paint and learn poetry.

Well, if this is poetry, I'm certainly never going to write any myself.

Poetry had far better imply things than preach them directly... in the open pulpit her voice grows hoarse and fails.