“My role in society, or any artist or poet’s role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.” — John Lennon

“Poems let us feel that power open up inside our bodies when we read the words out loud.” — Elizabeth Alexander

“Once a poem is made available to the public, the right of interpretation belongs to the reader.” — Sylvia Plath

“Poems are where voices can join together and sing in a voice more powerful than one. Poems mark a trail of identities; poems laid end to end are a map of the human voice.” — Elizabeth Alexander

“To be a poet is a condition, not a profession.” — Robert Frost

“Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does.” — Allen Ginsberg

“Poetry is a rich, full-bodied whistle, cracked ice crunching in pails, the night that numbs the leaf, the duel of two nightingales, the sweet pea that has run wild, Creation’s tears in shoulder blades.” — Boris Pasternak

“Poetry is nuclear energy squeezed into lines.” — Gülten Akın

“The poet doesn’t invent. He listens.” — Jean Cocteau