Alice Oswald Professions : Poet Born : 1966 Browse All Authors Top 28 quotes by Alice Oswald I believe the poet shouldn't be in the poem at all except as a lens or as ears. Alice Oswald lens i-believe poet believe At each moment, a poem might grow into a totally different shape. It is not so much like working in a garden. It is more as if you remade the garden every day. Alice Oswald grow day moment you I much preferred Latin to Greek. I loved the language being such a pattern that you could not shift a word without the whole sentence falling to pieces. Alice Oswald loved being you language At eight, I made a commitment to poetry. Until then, I thought I'd be a policeman. But I went a whole night without sleeping, and the next day the world had changed. It needed a different language. Alice Oswald day poetry night world I never meant to be a full-time poet: I started out as a gardener, an ideal job for a poet because your head is left free. Alice Oswald your free never job To be a poet is as serious, long-term and natural as the effort to be the best human you can be. To express something well is not a question of having a top-class education and understanding poetic forms: rather, it's a question of paying attention. Alice Oswald best you effort education I like Patti Smith's lyrics, and sometimes think I could be influenced by them. But she has a kind of cool that's beyond me. Alice Oswald cool think me sometimes I try not to invent; I try simply to translate the weird language of the natural world. And I'm not into absolute ownership of things. Alice Oswald weird try language world Similar Authors Abdellatif Laabi poet Ihara Saikaku poet Abram Joseph Ryan poet Ingeborg Bachmann poet Izumi Shikibu poet Bion of Smyrna poet All Authors