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

--Wallace Stevens

If I read a book and it makes my whole body feel so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.

--Emily Dickinson

How to Eat Poem

Don't be polite.
Bite in.
Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that

may run down your chin.
It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are.

You do not need a knife or fork or spoon
or plate or napkin or tablecloth.

For there is no core
or stem
or rind
or pit
or seed
or skin
to throw away.

--Eve Merriam

You will not find poetry anywhere unless you bring some of it with you.
--Joseph Joubert