#poem

Robert Frost had always said you mustn't think of the last line first, or it's only a fake poem, not a real one. I'm inclined to agree. ↗

— Howard Nemerov

#always #fake #first #frost #had

Lyrics are very different. There is a clear line between that and a poem. Something that has been a source of great excitement and delight for me is this idea that I get to rhyme. ↗

— Joanna Newsom

#between #clear #delight #different #excitement

Early on, if I was alone two three nights in a row, I'd start writing poems about suicide. ↗

— Jack Nicholson

#alone #early #i #nights #poems

I think that there are fiction writers for whom that works well. I could never do it. I feel as if, by the time I see that it's a poem, it's almost written in my head somewhere. ↗

— Sharon Olds

#by the time #could #feel #fiction #fiction writers

Many poets write books. They'll tell you: Well, I've got my next book, but there are two poems I need to write, one about x, one about y. This is a wonder to me. ↗

— Sharon Olds

#book #books #got #i #many

This creature of the poem may assemble itself into a being with its own centrifugal force. ↗

— Sharon Olds

#being #creature #force #into #itself

Well, "The Wellspring" was written from 1983 to 1986. And it had a section in the beginning that was poems that began from others' experience. ↗

— Sharon Olds

#beginning #experience #had #in the beginning #others

Almost anything is too much. I am trying in my poems to have the reader be the experiencer. I do not want to be there. It is not even a walk we take together. ↗

— Mary Oliver

#am #anything #even #i #i am

As a child, what captivated me was reading the poems myself and realizing that there was a world without material substance which was nevertheless as alive as any other. ↗

— Mary Oliver

#any #captivated #child #material #me

The poem, for me, is simply the first sound realized in the modality of being. ↗

— Charles Olson

#first #me #poem #realized #simply