Peter Davison quotes

The reason one writes poems is so that your poem will be remembered. (Peter Davison)
It is very difficult for people to come in contact with their own emotions and their own sensibilities. View quote
Peter Davison
And there are a lot more people reading poetry, but there are not so many people reading an individual poet. View quote
Peter Davison
But poetry is my life. Poetry is what matters to me. View quote
Peter Davison
I think poetry has lost an awful lot of its muscle because nobody knows any. Nobody has to memorize poetry. View quote
Peter Davison
I would like to be proud of having written some poems that will be remembered, but I will never know whether I will have any reason to be proud of that. View quote
Peter Davison
My friends never talk to me about my poetry because they're embarrassed that I write it or they're embarrassed by what I write about which are not such extraordinarily terrifying things, but they are the state of human existence. View quote
Peter Davison
It is a way we reassess our past. We can do that in poetry in ways we can't do in prose. View quote
Peter Davison
Poetry was invented as an mnemonic device to enable people to remember their prayers. View quote
Peter Davison
But for me, being an editor I've been an editor of all kinds of books being an editor of poetry has been the way in which I could give a crucial part of my time to what I love most. View quote
Peter Davison
The problem, for me, with the writing programs is that they produce a terrible uniformity of product. (Peter Davison)
Dealing with poetry is a daunting task, simply because the reason one does it as an editor at all is because one is constantly coming to terms with one's own understanding of how to understand the world. View quote
Peter Davison
If poets were realistic, they wouldn't be poets. View quote
Peter Davison
Every so often I find some poems that are too good for the readers of The Atlantic because they are a little too involved with the nature of poetry, as such. View quote
Peter Davison
I like poems that are complex. View quote
Peter Davison
Frost is the most sophisticated of poets. View quote
Peter Davison
In order to understand what they need to understand, in order to write what they write, they have to be free. And yet, they aren't ever free. They are not free because they are not free of the constrictions their art puts on them. View quote
Peter Davison
Poetry should be able to reach everybody, and it should be able to appeal to all levels of understanding. View quote
Peter Davison
I just think that some version of the past in our culture is going to rise up and become dominant. View quote
Peter Davison
People are talking about the Internet as though it is going to change the world. It's not going to change the world. It's not going to change the way we think, and it's not going to change the way we feel. View quote
Peter Davison
For instance, it's a little better now than it was two or three years ago, but something like 70% of the poems I receive seem to be written in the present indicative. (Peter Davison)
The trouble with the performance poets is that they don't seem to have read anything. So there is not a real sense of the poetic tradition in their work. View quote
Peter Davison
Poetry is composing for the breath. View quote
Peter Davison
In my youth, I found that I was quite often inspired and pushed forward by what I read. View quote
Peter Davison
They need to learn poetry. They don't need to learn about poetry. They don't need to be told how to interpret poetry. They don't need to be told how to understand poetry. They need to learn it. View quote
Peter Davison

Peter Davison

Occupation: American Poet
Born: June 27, 1928
Died: December 29, 2004
Quotes count: 30