#poe

What has any poet to trust more than the feel of the thing? Theory concerns him only until he picks up his pen, and it begins to concern him again as soon as he lays it down. ↗

— John Ciardi

#any #begins #concern #concerns #down

Poetry is indispensable - if I only knew what for. ↗

— Jean Cocteau

#indispensable #knew #only #poetry

Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie. ↗

— Jean Cocteau

#children #cut #his #knot #life

The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth. ↗

— Jean Cocteau

#always #liar #poet #speaks #truth

Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash. ↗

— Leonard Cohen

#burning #evidence #just #life #well

Out of the thousands who are known or who want to be known as poets, maybe one or two are genuine and the rest are fakes, hanging around the sacred precincts, trying to look like the real thing. ↗

— Leonard Cohen

#genuine #hanging #known #like #look

I think the term poet is a very exalted term and should be applied to a man at the end of his work. When he looks back over the body of his work and he's written poetry then let the verdict be that he's a poet. ↗

— Leonard Cohen

#back #body #end #exalted #his

I can't pretend this isn't important. I can't act like it doesn't exist. It's ironic, but true. There are a lot of things I'm really good at keeping secret. But I've learned I'm not too good at that with you. I can't pull it off. I don't want to just hook up. I don't want a secret relationship." "Well, that's a relief," I said, grabbing for both of his hands and holding on for dear life. Doubt started giving way to recognition, but he needed to hear it. "Why's that?" "Because I'm really sick of secrets. ↗

— Diana Peterfreund

#life

No man was ever yet a great poet, without being at the same time a profound philosopher. ↗

— Samuel Taylor Coleridge

#ever #great #man #philosopher #poet

The tides are in our veins, we still mirror the stars, life is your child, but there is in me Older and harder than life and more impartial, the eye that watched before there was an ocean. ↗

— Robinson Jeffers

#poetry #the-continent-s-end #life