“[Poetry] helps us slow down, hear clearly, see deeply, and envision what matters most in our lives.”
—Arthur Sze
“For me, the writing life doesn’t just happen when I sit at the writing desk. It is a life lived with a centering principle, and mine is this: that I will pay close attention to this world I find myself in.”
—Julia Alvarez
“A poem moves from one body to another. That movement—of feeling, of
imagination—is communal. And that communion is power.”
—Aimee Nezhukumatathil
“I really love language. I love it for what it does for us, how it allows us to explain the pain and the glory, the nuances and delicacies of our existence.”
—Maya Angelou
“Poems inherently have a different relationship with time. The present and the past are linked in every stanza.”