I'll lie here and learn How, over their ground, Trees make a long shadow And a light sound.
Louise BoganBut it's silly to suggest the writing of poetry is something ethereal, a sort of soul-crashing, devastating emotional experience that wrings you. I have no fancy ideas about poetry. ... It doesn't come to you on the wings of a dove. It's something you have to work hard at.
Louise BoganBecause language is the carrier of ideas, it is easy to believe that it should be very little else than such a carrier.
Louise BoganIt is not possible, for a poet, writing in any language, to protect himself from the tragic elements in human life.... [ellipsis in source] Illness, old age, and death--subjects as ancient as humanity--these are the subjects that the poet must speak of very nearly from the first moment that he begins to speak.
Louise Bogan