If we ask a vague question, such as, 'What is poetry?' we expect a vague answer, such as, 'Poetry is the music of words,' or 'Poetry is the linguistic correction of disorder.'

Quote by A R Ammons

I can't tell you where a poem comes from, what it is, or what it...

I can't tell you where a poem comes from, what it is, or what it...

Probably all the attention to poetry results in some value, though the attention is more...

Probably all the attention to poetry results in some value, though the attention is more...

For though we often need to be restored to the small, concrete, limited, and certain,...

For though we often need to be restored to the small, concrete, limited, and certain,...

Is it not careless to become too local when there are four hundred billion stars...

Is it not careless to become too local when there are four hundred billion stars...

I am grateful for - though I can't keep up with - the flood of...

I am grateful for - though I can't keep up with - the flood of...

Only silence perfects silence.

Only silence perfects silence.

A poem generated by its own laws may be unrealized and bad in terms of...

A poem generated by its own laws may be unrealized and bad in terms of...

Everything is discursive opinion instead of direct experience.

Everything is discursive opinion instead of direct experience.

That's a wonderful change that's taken place, and so most poetry today is published, if...

That's a wonderful change that's taken place, and so most poetry today is published, if...

I must stress here the point that I appreciate clarity, order, meaning, structure, rationality: they...

I must stress here the point that I appreciate clarity, order, meaning, structure, rationality: they...

The poet exposes himself to the risk. All that has been said about poetry, all...

The poet exposes himself to the risk. All that has been said about poetry, all...

Questions structure and, so, to some extent predetermine answers.

Questions structure and, so, to some extent predetermine answers.

If a poem is each time new, then it is necessarily an act of discovery,...

If a poem is each time new, then it is necessarily an act of discovery,...

Besides the actual reading in class of many poems, I would suggest you do two...

Besides the actual reading in class of many poems, I would suggest you do two...

Poetry leads us to the unstructured sources of our beings, to the unknown, and returns...

Poetry leads us to the unstructured sources of our beings, to the unknown, and returns...

Each poem in becoming generates the laws by which it is generated: extensions of the...

Each poem in becoming generates the laws by which it is generated: extensions of the...

You have your identity when you find out, not what you can keep your mind...

You have your identity when you find out, not what you can keep your mind...

Our identities have no bodies, so, unlike you, we cannot obtain order by physical coercion....

Our identities have no bodies, so, unlike you, we cannot obtain order by physical coercion....

Our true reality is in our identity and unity with all life.

Our true reality is in our identity and unity with all life.

Shakespeare without Othello, Lear, Macbeth and Hamlet would be all too much like Hamlet without...

Shakespeare without Othello, Lear, Macbeth and Hamlet would be all too much like Hamlet without...