Mary Jo Salter Inspirational Quotes (6)

I am a relatively rational being and I like to create order in poems. I like meter, I like rhyme, but ultimately I don't know where the poems come from, and I feel, at least in the beginning, that I'm taking dictation from my own dream that I don't remember.

As poets, we're writing into the void, and we're not writing to be bestsellers. Whatever individual responses we get, whether at a reading, by a conversation or a letter, mean the world.

And I said to myself, here's the problem with the world: The Italians are too Italian, and nobody else is Italian enough.

Like a page dipped in ink, your cuff's in my coffee. / You have something to tell with unbuttoned sleeves.

All writers know in advance that they are not going be able to reproduce in its wonderful fullness the thing that's in their heads we're going to get some corner of it. We're going to do the best we can, but we already know it's beyond us.

Political poetry is the hardest thing to write because you cannot preach to the converted, and if you're only seeking to convert, then write an editorial. I hope I can write about Trump he's too major a force not to be written about.