“Poetry comes alive to me through recitation.”– Natalie Merchant Related Quotes “You should always be trying to write a poem you are unable to write, a poem you lack the technique, the language, the courage to achieve. Otherwise you’re merely imitating yourself, going nowhere, because that’s always easiest.”— John Berryman “Immortal amarant, a flower which onceIn paradise, fast by the tree of life,Began to bloom; but soon for man’s offenceTo heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows,And flowers aloft, shading the fount of life,And where the river of bliss through midst of heavenRolls o’er elysian flowers her amber stream:With these that never fade the spirits electBind their resplendent locks.”— John Milton “I was influenced by surrealist poetry and painting as were thousands of other people, and it seems to me to have become a part of the way I write, but it’s not.”– Kenneth Koch