“The great poet is always a seer, seeing less with the eyes of the body

than he does with the eyes of the mind.”

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

I’ve been consistently nagged in recent months to post some of my own poetry. It’s not something I do or will do until the poetry gods speak to me. In recent months they’ve been oddly quiet. As with anyone writing poetry a person has to be moved by emotions. Love and hatred are two huge motivators that are fueled by a host of other lesser emotions like a few weeks or months of depression or celebration. Once I’m moved to write poetry it’s to either express a low and morbid mood or I’m flying high with love or joy over something important only to me. Let’s let some experts in on this conversation.

“Poetry should surprise by a fine excess, and not by Singularity – it should strike the Reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts and appear almost a Remembrance.” John Keats (1795-1821)

“Poetry begins . . . when we look from the center outward.” Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

“A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.” Robert Frost (1874-1963)

“The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it.” Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)

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And here is the quote that makes and explains my initial point from the first paragraph.

‘All good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotions recollected in tranquility.”

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)