Poem Creation Quotes

My theory is that poems are written because of a state of emotional irritation. It may be present for some time before the poet is conscious of what is tormenting him. The emotional irritation springs, probably, from subconscious combinations of partly forgotten thoughts and feelings. Coming together, like electrical currents in a thunder storm, they produce a poem. ... the poem is written to free the poet from an emotional burden.

I make a discovery in a poem as I write it.

I do not suppose that anyone not a poet can realize the agony of creating a poem. Every nerve, even every muscle, seems strained to the breaking point. The poem will not be denied; to refuse to write it would be a greater torture. It tears its way out of the brain, splintering and breaking its passage, and leaves that organ in the state of a jelly-fish when the task is done.

My poems often start with an idea, some kind of inspiration. I don't expect anything. Every now and then something like "The One Truth" comes out.

I am aware that a computer can’t create a poem, but neither can a typewriter.

Writers must... take care of the sensibility that houses the possibility of poems.

I write the poems first, with only a few exceptions for odd reasons, where I'm given the illustration first.

As naturally as the oak bears an acorn and the vine a gourd, man bears a poem, either spoken or done.