Galway Kinnell Quotes

Poetry is not a matter of feelings, it is a matter of language. It is language which creates feelings.

An age which is incapable of poetry is incapable of any kind of literature except the cleverness of a decadence.

Poetry is ordinary language raised to the Nth power. Poetry is boned with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words.

A poem is no place for an idea.

Poetry is the shadow cast by our streetlight imaginations.

Language is the machine of the poet.

Why then we should drop into poetry.

I think the writing of literature should give pleasure. What else should it be about? It is not nuclear physics. It actually has to give pleasure or it is worth nothing.

Poetry is truth in its Sunday clothes.

A grain of poetry suffices to season a century.

A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.

Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads.

Yes, I do often write poems from the mind, but I hope I don't ignore feelings and emotions.

When power narrows the areas of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence.

I'm a poet.

Poetry and imagination begin life. A child will fall on its knees on the gravel walk at the sight of a pink hawthorn in full flower, when it is by itself, to praise God for it.

Fiction—and poetry and drama— cleanse the doors of perception.

Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting.

Joy is a part of my process. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that poetry, as a practice, necessitates a sense of joy. It's exhilarating to come into contact with the things we write into being. And a real sense of play and abandon – even when we are relying on hard-won technique, and even when the aim is deadly serious. How often do we get the excuse to stop, think, and then stop thinking altogether and try to listen to what sits behind our outside of our thoughts? Poets are lucky.

The essence of poetry is will and passion.

Poetry is as vital to thinking as knowledge.

I am writing these poems from inside a lion.

Poetry is an orphan of silence.

Are democracy and poetry exclusive of one another and, if so, why?

I always say that a poet loves the world, and the prose writer needs to create an alternative world.