I think a poet, like a painter, should be a craftsperson. Anne Stevenson More Quotes by Anne Stevenson More Quotes From Anne Stevenson Each word bears its weight, so you have to read my poems quite slowly. Anne Stevenson poetry weight bears There's no friend like someone who has known you since you were five. Anne Stevenson no-friends friends five The sea is as near as we come to another world. Anne Stevenson ocean sea water A poem might be defined as thinking about feelings - about human feelings and frailties. Anne Stevenson poetry feelings thinking I remain loyal to Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert in music and to Shakespeare and Jane Austen in literature. Anne Stevenson austen loyal literature Yes, I do often write poems from the mind, but I hope I don't ignore feelings and emotions. Anne Stevenson mind feelings writing Blackbirds are the cellos of the deep farms. Anne Stevenson blackbirds farms bird I am now seventy, rather glad, really, that I won't live to see the horrors to come in the 21st century. Anne Stevenson horror century glad You've got criminal courts and child welfare officials refusing to do their jobs and protect children so they can shift the cases over to family court where predatory professionals can turn a dirty buck off the atrocities committed against children. Anne Stevenson jobs children dirty There is far too much literary criticism of the wrong kind. That is why I never could have survived as an academic. Anne Stevenson too-much kind criticism Poets should ignore most criticism and get on with making poetry. Anne Stevenson poet criticism should I have always made my own rules, in poetry as in life - though I have tried of late to cooperate more with my family. I do, however, believe that without order or pattern poetry is useless. Anne Stevenson useless order believe I don't like poetry that just slaps violent words on a canvas, as it were. Anne Stevenson slap violent canvas I play with language a great deal in my poems, and I enjoy that. I try to condense language, that is, I try to express complicated but I hope real emotions as simply as possible. But that doesn't mean the poems are simple, just that they are as truthful as I can make them. Anne Stevenson real simple mean I write, or used to write, to explain to myself situations I couldn't otherwise solve or understand. Meditation comes very naturally to me. Anne Stevenson used meditation writing When everything is for 'fun' nothing is for the good. Anne Stevenson fun My soul, Anne Stevenson my-soul soul ifs I dislike literary jargon and never use it. Criticism has only one function and that is to help readers read and understand literature. It is not a science, it is an aid to art. Anne Stevenson hygiene science art I like rhyme because it is memorable, I like form because having to work to a pattern gives me original ideas. Anne Stevenson memorable giving ideas Mind led body Anne Stevenson silence mind desire
