Linton Kwesi Johnson Quotes

The Resistance is a moral certainty, not a poetic one. The true poet never uses words in order to punish someone. His judgment belongs to a creative order; it is not formulated as a prophetic scripture.

Well, I like to write poetry. I'm a published poet.

Language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity.

Women who are inclined to write poetry at all are inspired by being mad at something.

Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars.

Poetry is respected only in this country [Russia.] There is no place where more people are killed for it.

When it comes to poetry, I think partly the numbers of people attempting to write poems is probably a result or the reaction to technology.

For me, the poetry in a work is that which makes visible the invisible.

All of life in its complexity and beauty is forever minted in the gold of words.

The poet wants justice. And the poet wants art. In poetry we can't have one without the other.

We were clever enough to turn a laundry list into poetry.

I suppose I'm saying that defiance is actually part of the lyric job

What makes poetry? A full heart, brimful of one noble passion.

The poet is he who inspires, rather than he who is inspired.

The time is right to mix sentences with dirt and the sun with punctuation and rain with verbs.

Poetry -- even bad poetry -- may be our final hope.

Why do you need a voice when you have a verse?

I always wanted to write poetry, even when I was very young.

I opened my veins. Unstoppably life spurts out with no remedy. Now I set out bowls and plates. Every bowl will be shallow. Every plate will be small. And overflowing their rims, into the black earth, to nourish the rushes unstoppably without cure, gushes poetry.

Engineering, like poetry, is an attempt to approach perfection. And engineers, like poets, are seldom completely satisfied with their creations. They notice, even if no one else does, the world that is not quite le mot juste, or the hairline crack that blemishes the structure.

Poetry is what makes my toenails twinkle.

Keetje Kuipers' poems are daring, formally beautiful and driven by rich imagery and startling ideas.

for what is the gift of the poet and the artist except to see the sights which others cannot see and to hear the sounds that others cannot hear?

Poetry fettered fetters the human race.

Life makes writing poetry necessary to prove I really was paying attention.