Imitation, if it is not forgery, is a fine thing. It stems from a generous impulse, and a realistic sense of what can and cannot be done.

In rap, as in most popular lyrics, a very low standard is set for rhyme; but this was not always the case with popular music.

The writing of a poem is like a child throwing stones into a mineshaft. You compose first, then you listen for the reverberation.

One does not become a guru by accident.

Composers need words, but they do not necessarily need poetry. The Russian composer, Aleksandr Mossolov, who chose texts from newspaper small ads, had a good point to make. With revolutionary music, any text can be set to work.

The lullaby is the spell whereby the mother attempts to transform herself back from an ogre to a saint.

The voice is raised, and that is where poetry begins. And even today, in the prolonged aftermath of modernism, in places where "open form" or free verse is the orthodoxy, you will find a memory of that raising of the voice in the term "heightened speech".