“Poetry leads us to the unstructured sources of our beings, to the unknown, and returns us to our rational, structured selves refreshed.”
– A. R. Ammons
“The poet exposes himself to the risk. All that has been said about poetry, all that he has learned about poetry, is only a partial assurance.”
– A. R. Ammons
“That’s a wonderful change that’s taken place, and so most poetry today is published, if not directly by the person, certainly by the enterprise of the poet himself, working with his friends.”
– A. R. Ammons
“Besides the actual reading in class of many poems, I would suggest you do two things: first, while teaching everything you can and keeping free of it, teach that poetry is a mode of discourse that differs from logical exposition.”
– A. R. Ammons
“If we ask a vague question, such as, ‘What is poetry?’ we expect a vague answer, such as, ‘Poetry is the music of words,’ or ‘Poetry is the linguistic correction of disorder.’”
– A. R. Ammons
“I am grateful for – though I can’t keep up with – the flood of articles, theses, and textbooks that mean to share insight concerning the nature of poetry.”
– A. R. Ammons
“Probably all the attention to poetry results in some value, though the attention is more often directed to lesser than to greater values.”
– A. R. Ammons
“Once every five hundred years or so, a summary statement about poetry comes along that we can’t imagine ourselves living without.”
– A. R. Ammons
“Even if you walk exactly the same route each time – as with a sonnet – the events along the route cannot be imagined to be the same from day to day, as the poet’s health, sight, his anticipations, moods, fears, thoughts cannot be the same.”
– A. R. Ammons
“Everything is discursive opinion instead of direct experience.”
– A. R. Ammons
“Is it not careless to become too local when there are four hundred billion stars in our galaxy alone.”
– A. R. Ammons