"Poetry is a collaborative art, and yet—as it is being created—the most solitary and 'individual' of activities."

Michael Schmidt (poet)Literature See all quotes by Michael Schmidt (poet) →

React to this quote

More by Michael Schmidt (poet)

“Poetry is a language with a shape”

“In poetry much of the sense and most of the pleasure resides in the sounds the poem make.”

“What matters in poetry is form, how words work together, the sounds and silences their combinations make. The ordered effects they produce on the attentive hearer.”

“We read with our ears”

“The reader does not need a technical vocabulary to read poetry, only a voice in the head or out loud which can deliver the sounds.”

“Poetry is a process, a form of discovery, which if it serves a cause, transcends it.”

Resonant Thoughts

"Philosophy springs from the love of being; it is man's loving endeavor to perceive the order of being and attune himself to it. Gnosis desires dominion over being; in order to seize control of being t…"

— Eric Voegelin

Philosophy1901–1985

#philosophy

"I think there was an impulse in me to write women as central to the text. Part of that is my own limitations as a writer: being able to delineate the varieties of female experience is clearly easier f…"

— Namwali Serpell

Art1980

#philosophy

"In the entire world, there is not a single establishment of the security industry that is not based on monopoly or on communism. Political economy has disapproved equally of monopoly and communism …"

— Gustave de Molinari

Politics1819–1912

#philosophy

"In this country … we are young, brash and technologically oriented. We are all trying to build machines so that we can push a button and get things done a millisecond faster. But as a consequence, we …"

— Alex Haley

Literature1921–1992

#philosophy