“ The young people have MTV and rock and roll. Why would they go to read poetry? Poetry belongs to the Stone Age. It awakens in us perceptions that go back to those times. Robert Morgan
“ The decision to write in prose instead of poetry is made more by the readers than by writers. Almost no one is interested in reading narrative in verse. Robert Morgan
“ A poem in form still has to have voice, gesture, a sense of discovery, a metaphoric connection, as any poetry does. Robert Morgan
“ Pound's translation of Chinese poetry was maybe the most important thing I read. Eliot a little bit later. Robert Morgan
“ The fact that something is in a rhymed form or in blank verse will not make it good poetry. Robert Morgan
“ What actually makes poetry poetry is of course impossible to define. We recognize it when we hear it, when we see it, but we can't define it. Robert Morgan
“ One of the most powerful devices of poetry is the use of distortions. You can go from talking about the way a minute passes to the way a century passes, or a lifetime. Robert Morgan
“ Part of what we love about poetry is the fact that it seems ancient, that it has an authority of ancient language and ancient form, and that it's timeless, that it reaches back. Robert Morgan
“ I don't think poetry is something that can be taught. We can encourage young writers, but what you can't teach them is the very essence of poetry. Robert Morgan
“ I learned to impersonate the kind of person that talks about poetry. It comes from teaching, I think. Robert Morgan
“ If a poem is not memorable, there's probably something wrong. One of the problems of free verse is that much of the free verse poetry is not memorable. Robert Morgan
“ Some people swear by writing courses, but whether it really helps American poetry, I have doubts. Robert Morgan
“ Teaching writing over the years intrudes on your own writing in important ways, taking away some of the excitement of poetry. Robert Morgan
“ Our most famous writers are Faulkner and Eudora Welty and Flannery O'Connor. It would make sense that the poetry would reflect some of those same values, some of the same techniques. Robert Morgan
“ It was less a literary thing than a linguistic, philosophical preoccupation... discovering how far you can go with language to create immediate, elementary experience. Robert Morgan
“ Alchemy is the art of far and near, and I think poetry is alchemy in that way. It's delightful to distort size, to see something that's tiny as though it were vast. Robert Morgan
“ The Language Poets are writing only about language itself. The Ashbery poets are writing only about poetry itself. That seems to me a kind of dead end. Robert Morgan
