132 Poetry Quotes And Sayings

Poetry has a unique power to encapsulate profound emotions and timeless truths in just a few words. Whether it’s capturing the beauty of nature, the intricacies of love, or the struggles of human existence, poetry has been a cherished form of expression for centuries. In this collection, we delve into 132 of the most poignant poetry quotes and sayings that resonate with both poets and readers alike. These words celebrate the artistry of language and provide insights into the human experience, inviting you to explore the essence of what makes poetry an enduring and universal art form.

1. “He who mocks the infant's faithShall be mock'd in age and death.He who shall teach the child to doubtThe rotting grave shall ne'er get out.He who respects the infant's faithTriumphs over hell and death.The child's toys and the old man's reasonsAre the fruits of the two seasons.- "Auguries of Innocence” - William Blake

2. “Igen: élni, míg élünk,Igen: ez a szabály.De mit csináljunk az életünkkel,Ha fáj?Élni, míg élünk” - Endre Ady

3. “O to be self-balanced for contingencies, to confront night, storms, hunger, ridicule, accidents, rebuffs, as the trees and animals do.” - Walt Whitman

4. “I love being able to see an un-written future.” - Michael Jones

5. “I will never take what is never given, but I will receive to what is given.” - Michael Jones

6. “Poetry can be dangerous, especially beautiful poetry, because it gives the illusion of having had the experience without actually going through it.” - Jalal Ad-Din Rumi

7. “The will of life and death, never share the same motivation...we all know that love is the ultimate motive to die for...but let’s not kid ourselves......we all know the ultimate motive to rise back from the dead is vengeance.” - unauthor

8. “All things want to float.” - Rainer Maria Rilke

9. “If I wouldn't of spent so much time shooting spit wads at my English teacher I'd know how to punctuate good thing I normally write poetry.” - Stanley Victor Paskavich

10. “Blessed is the covenant of love, the covenant of mercy, useless light behind the terror, deathless song in the house of night.” - Leonard Cohen

11. “Sevgili Güllük;Yastık kanepenin üzerine konur. Tekme atılarak düşürülür o. Pazar günleri kuru fasulye yenir. Karşılıklı, alt alta, üst üste ve daha değişik şekillerde durulur. Islak vardır. Portakalın içi de dışı gibi portakal rengidir. Köstebeklerin uçma kabiliyeti bulunmaz. Kamyonlar yük taşırlar. Kaza olur. Kaza yaparlar. Süleyman, Çetin, Atıf, Kemal, Necdet gibi erkek isimleri; Zeynep, Burçak, Burçak ve Burçak gibi kız isimleri vardır. Patates cinsleri vardır; kızartmalık ve haşlamalık. Çeşitli ebatlarda düğün pastaları olur. Muz olur.” - Ah Muhsin Ünlü

12. “What will you do now with the gift of your left life?” - Carol Ann Duffy

13. “Man disavows, and Deity disowns me;Hell might afford my miseries a shelter;Therefore Hell keeps her ever-hungry mouths allBolted against me.Hard lot! encompassed with a thousand dangers,Weary, faint, trembling with a thousand terrors,I'm called, if vanquished, to receive a sentenceWorse than Abiram's.Him the vindictive rod of angry JusticeSent quick and howling to the centre headlong;I, fed with judgement, in a fleshy tomb, amBuried above ground.” - William Cowper

14. “The music of revelation announces itself to the reader in somber brooding tones or in melodies light as air and one is invited to dance with the most captivating of partners: poetry.” - Aberjhani

15. “When Hitler marched across the RhineTo take the land of France,La dame de fer decided,‘Let’s make the tyrant dance.’Let him take the land and city,The hills and every flower,One thing he will never have,The elegant Eiffel Tower.The French cut the cables,The elevators stood still,‘If he wants to reach the top,Let him walk it, if he will.’The invaders hung a swastikaThe largest ever seen.But a fresh breeze blewAnd away it flew,Never more to be seen.They hung up a second mark,Smaller than the first,But a patriot climbedWith a thought in mind:‘Never your duty shirk.’Up the iron ladyHe stealthily made his way,Hanging the bright tricolour,He heroically saved the day.Then, for some strange reason,A mystery to this day,Hitler never climbed the tower,On the ground he had to stay.At last he ordered she be razedDown to a twisted pile.A futile attack, for still she standsBeaming her metallic smile.” - E.A. Bucchianeri

16. “. . . distant as the death of grocery chickens.” - Rodney Jones

17. “Ah, me resisto, mas me tienes toda, tú, que nunca serás del todo mío.” - Alfonsina Storni

18. “POD RALOMRalo tvog blagog čelicnog pogledaizbrazdalo je moje srcei iz te zemlje preoranecvet rastanka je zaridaoDanasu istom graduu kome smo se rastalijedino ja vidim tvoju statuuna trgu IzgubljenjaHiljade dana vec je prošlood dana kada smo se poslednji put ljubilinekad se gledam u ogledalonemajući hrabrosti da se obrijemI to uvek padne ponedeljkomponedeljkom kad su berbernice zatvorenei onda se dosađujemI onda otvaram prozorzovem tei ti si tusa zlatnim brijačem i srebrnom četkomu paklenoj kadi tvog poslednjeg ljubavnikasa četrdeset konja od groma i vetraI letim tii brijem se kako se nijedan princ nije obrijaoi kupam se sa sto pedeset na satkako se niko na svetusem onih kojima se tako nešto već desilookupao nijeNe pitam te čak ni kamo idemone zato što me ne zanimaveć zato što znamda ni ti sama ne znašI kao što ti to umeš postavljaš mi pitalicete kada je rođena smrtte kada će život konačno umretionda zašto se smejemi zašto smo se ono rastaliZa volanom je čovek plemenita rodaa ni on ne znako mu je sve u kolimaI ja onako još nasapunjanih rukuzatvaram mu očiUU uu! pogodi ko jeI kola tako polete u stranu da...Ali u zidini zime uvek će postojati otvorkroz koji će se moći videti ono najlepše letoSmotana gvožđurija prelivena krvljueksplozija radostiA da ih i ne zovešsrećne uspomene javljaju se tu sami vraćaju se na svoja mesta kraj neugašene vatreVreme ne zna koje je dobadoba ne zna koje je vremeJednoga dana talas toploteoboje nas je zahvatiomodrica srećekoja se više ne da izbrisati.” - Jacques Prévert

19. “...I want to live doubly - first with you and then afterwards in memory ...” - John Geddes

20. “Whiteness is the color of death, you know, not black. Wetness is life, the breeder and shaper of life. In the beginning the sun was black. So all light was absorbed before it had a chance to return. And our dreams, then, were empty.” - Jim Carroll

21. “I had let it all grow. I had supposed It was all OK. Your lifeWas a liner I voyaged in.Costly education had fitted you out.Financiers and committees and consultantsEffaced themselves in the gleam of your finish.You trembled with the new life of those engines.That first morning,Before your first class at College, you sat thereSipping coffee. Now I know, as I did not,What eyes waited at the back of the classTo check your first professional performanceAgainst their expectations. What assessorsWaited to see you justify the costAnd redeem their gamble. What a furnaceOf eyes waited to prove your metal. I watchedThe strange dummy stiffness, the misery,Of your blue flannel suit, its straitjacket, uglyHalf-approximation to your ideaOf the properties you hoped to ease into,And your horror in it. And the tannedAlmost green undertinge of your faceShrunk to its wick, your scar lumpish, your plaitedHead pathetically tiny.You waited,Knowing yourself helpless in the tweezersOf the life that judges you, and I sawThe flayed nerve, the unhealable face-woundWhich was all you had for courage.I saw that what you gripped, as you sipped,Were terrors that killed you once already.Now I see, I saw, sitting, the lonelyGirl who was going to die.That blue suit.A mad, execution uniform,Survived your sentence. But then I sat, stilled,Unable to fathom what stilled youAs I looked at you, as I am stilledPermanently now, permanentlyBending so briefly at your open coffin.” - Ted Hughes

22. “(1)BEING A POETis like opening a car door& exposing yourself.(2)BEING A GOOD POETis like opening the door& exposing the passengeras well.” - Chocolate Waters

23. “Перегортаю записник,Коли нестає сил.Люди зо зброєю:— Вірші можна писати олівцем,На старих ґазетах, кривавих сорочках,Вугликом на бетонній стіні,В окопах,Коли на тебе плюють І стають чоботами…” - Юрій Завадський

24. “so quiet now my dearest knightyour armor shines white stillfor my lips shall not say the wordsthat make you flee with fear"White Knight” - Shay Leigh

25. “poems are small moments of enlightenment” - Natalie Goldberg

26. “La grandeza concreta de la poesía, como la de la vida, consiste en no estar hecha.” - Roberto Juarroz

27. “Talk to me in poetry. / It is all I understand.” - Linda Stitt

28. “Unforgiveness,splinter in your breastbone, lives there lodged like a small tree.Withers in winter, looms in spring. Its fruit is sweet on first bite, then turns into the taste of your own flesh.” - Katerina Stoykova Klemer

29. “البارحةحينما خرجتُ من جسدي سالماً، رأيتُكِ تركضينَ برداءٍ أسودَ ودمعةٍ أخيرة. كانَ الليلُ وقتَها على أتمِّ سوادِهِ والريحُ خلفكِ تنبح.” - علي محمود خضير

30. “and you taste / of the memory of god abandoned.” - Mikl Paul

31. “I want to gossip about forever / against the part of your back that / is mine.” - Mikl Paul

32. “Cosmos is God, who whispered the syllable of life.” - Dejan Stojanovic

33. “Real geniuses would like that what we think of ourselves is true.” - Dejan Stojanovic

34. “Darkness does not age; nothing is always nothing” - Dejan Stojanovic

35. “God is a cloud from which rain fell.” - Dejan Stojanovic

36. “Life is only a flicker of melted ice.” - Dejan Stojanovic

37. “Existence is the end of endless eternity without a beginning or an end.” - Dejan Stojanovic

38. “When following God, Zero we never find.” - Dejan Stojanovic

39. “Sun is a hearthstone, a merry-go-round of extinguished hearthstones.” - Dejan Stojanovic

40. “Sunbathe from within.” - Dejan Stojanovic

41. “Arrival in the world is really a departure and that, which we call departure, is only a return.” - Dejan Stojanovic

42. “Different languages, the same thoughts; servant to thoughts and their masters.” - Dejan Stojanovic

43. “Everybody talks, but there is no conversation.” - Dejan Stojanovic

44. “When the long bygone Lee Po wanted to say something, he could do it with only a few words.” - Dejan Stojanovic

45. “Truth is hard-hearted and unrelenting, too clear, precise; a lie is much more imaginative.” - Dejan Stojanovic

46. “He did not waste time in a vain search for a place in history.” - Dejan Stojanovic

47. “After Homer and Dante, is a whole century of creating worth one Shakespeare?” - Dejan Stojanovic

48. “He did not profess to anybody how to reach others without professing.” - Dejan Stojanovic

49. “You not only are hunted by others, you unknowingly hunt yourself.” - Dejan Stojanovic

50. “We need knew knights, but without swords.” - Dejan Stojanovic

51. “Even if you are alone you wage war with yourself.” - Dejan Stojanovic

52. “Whatever others may say, they say it to deceive and comfort themselves, not help you.” - Dejan Stojanovic

53. “His Highness was always confident in his statements, especially about what he viewed for the first time.” - Dejan Stojanovic

54. “This dwarf still observes the world from his own self-imposed height.” - Dejan Stojanovic

55. “There are no winners in real games.” - Dejan Stojanovic

56. “Serious affairs and history are carefully laid snares for the uninformed.” - Dejan Stojanovic

57. “Disease often comes with a smiling face.” - Dejan Stojanovic

58. “Don’t pay attention to those who offer too much.” - Dejan Stojanovic

59. “He confided his deepest secret to you; be always wary of his secret.” - Dejan Stojanovic

60. “If we were to understand how important it is to say something and say it well, maybe we wouldn’t write a single word, but that would be tragic.” - Dejan Stojanovic

61. “Before the first before and after the last after, there is night waiting.” - Dejan Stojanovic

62. “Our desire to say more grows bigger and what to say about it, except that saying is not always about saying, growing is not always about growing.” - Dejan Stojanovic

63. “There is a moonlight note in the Moonlight Sonata; there is a thunder note in an angry sky.” - Dejan Stojanovic

64. “There is no competition of sounds between a nightingale and a violin.” - Dejan Stojanovic

65. “If birth is a manifestation of life, death is another.” - Dejan Stojanovic

66. “Every thought about death takes a moment of life away.” - Dejan Stojanovic

67. “Even great men bow before the Sun; it melts hubris into humility.” - Dejan Stojanovic

68. “Dust to dust, ashes to ashes. Is that all?” - Dejan Stojanovic

69. “My feelings are too loud for words and too shy for the world.” - Dejan Stojanovic

70. “There is another alphabet, whispering from every leaf, singing from every river, shimmering from every sky.” - Dejan Stojanovic

71. “Trying too hard to be too good, even when trying to be bad, is too good for the bad, too bad for the good.” - Dejan Stojanovic

72. “To dream on occasion is not dreaming, To love on occasion is not love.” - Dejan Stojanovic

73. “Everything that looks too perfect is too perfect to be perfect.” - Dejan Stojanovic

74. “Use the wings of the flying Universe, Dream with open eyes; See in darkness.” - Dejan Stojanovic

75. “Some people complain there are too many people on earth, Some people complain about secret societies, Some people accuse others of not being able to wake up early. Almost all people complain about something.” - Dejan Stojanovic

76. “Why poetry, you ask? Because of life, I answer.” - Dejan Stojanovic

77. “Since nothing is absolute There is no absolute silence, Only an appearance Of temporary peace.” - Dejan Stojanovic

78. “Get out, but don't cause unneeded accidents.” - Dejan Stojanovic

79. “To say more while saying less is the secret of being simple.” - Dejan Stojanovic

80. “To not say all that can be said is the secret of discipline and economy.” - Dejan Stojanovic

81. “To hide feelings when you are near crying is the secret of dignity.” - Dejan Stojanovic

82. “To cut and tighten sentences is the secret of mastery.” - Dejan Stojanovic

83. “To go where no one else has ever gone before is the secret of heroism.” - Dejan Stojanovic

84. “A star needs a star.” - Dejan Stojanovic

85. “I visited many places, Some of them quite Exotic and far away, But I always returned to myself.” - Dejan Stojanovic

86. “To understand possible means to understand impossible.” - Dejan Stojanovic

87. “It is futile to spend time telling stories about the fleetness of each day.” - Dejan Stojanovic

88. “It is vain futility to analyze the algebra of time.” - Dejan Stojanovic

89. “Color is the overpowering of black; white – the final victory over black.” - Dejan Stojanovic

90. “The eyesight for an eagle is what thought is to a man.” - Dejan Stojanovic

91. “The world cannot be translated; It can only be dreamed of and touched.” - Dejan Stojanovic

92. “If emptiness is empty, how can something be borne or awaken from it?” - Dejan Stojanovic

93. “When everything hurries everywhere, nothing goes anywhere.” - Dejan Stojanovic

94. “Every star was darker than the night before it awoke.” - Dejan Stojanovic

95. “Into the day as by dream I swim To the music of nourished meaning.” - Dejan Stojanovic

96. “Life into death— Life’s other shape, No rupture, Only crossing.” - Dejan Stojanovic

97. “He knows he will be born again, And start fresh anew.” - Dejan Stojanovic

98. “A hidden spark of the dream sleeps In the forest and waits In the celestial spheres of the brain.” - Dejan Stojanovic

99. “All dust is the same dust. Temporarily separated To go peacefully And enjoy the eternal nap.” - Dejan Stojanovic

100. “Vandals listen only when others are stronger.If vandals are equal or strongerTheir word is the last word.” - Dejan Stojanovic

101. “Deliver thunder, GodIf you choose not to talk.” - Dejan Stojanovic

102. “Death swallows death.” - Dejan Stojanovic

103. “We will go far away, to nowhere, to conquer, to fertilize until we become tired. Then we will stop and there will be our home.” - Dejan Stojanovic

104. “I recreate myself; that is my only power.” - Dejan Stojanovic

105. “Instead of imitating me, you simply loiter.” - Dejan Stojanovic

106. “I am the shore and the ocean, awaiting myself on both sides.” - Dejan Stojanovic

107. “I travel, always arriving in the same place.” - Dejan Stojanovic

108. “My mathematics is simple: one plus one = one.” - Dejan Stojanovic

109. “In the biggest and the smallest I sleep but at the same place I stay.” - Dejan Stojanovic

110. “In a myriad of ways you tell one truth.” - Dejan Stojanovic

111. “What you gain here, you lose on the other side.” - Dejan Stojanovic

112. “In greatness, life and death merge.” - Dejan Stojanovic

113. “sometimes I hearscreaming like a childand wake upto find it’s me” - Stephen Fitzsimons

114. “Always dip your toe in the past before stepping into the future” - Benny Bellamacina

115. “...sombra que sucesivo anhela el viento...” - Francisco de Quevedo

116. “¿De qué sirve presumir,rosal, de buen parecer,si aun no acabas de nacercuando empiezas a morir?” - Francisco de Quevedo

117. “...mi corazón es reino del espanto.” - Francisco de Quevedo

118. “There's two ways to become a famous Poet, find that one person that knows somebody, that knows somebody, that knows somebody.Or die trying” - Stanley Victor Paskavich

119. “...I pluck every day from my sweater or chair, red hairs...strands of significance, traces of you in my life ...” - John Geddes

120. “...freshly cut Christmas trees smelling of stars and snow and pine resin - inhale deeply and fill your soul with wintry night...” - John Geddes

121. “...my dreams are tangled in images of stars and clouds and firelight - we go camping at night - it's my lucid dream of being with you...” - John Geddes

122. “...my heart is a desolate field over which geese vee, the sky turns and the days lie fallow...” - John Geddes

123. “...the wind hums low with sweet exultation, sings its lullaby, while you sleep ...” - John Geddes

124. “يَـقـولُ أُنـاسٌ عَلَّ مَجنونَ عامِرٍ ~~~~ يَـرومُ سُـلـوّاً قُـلتُ أَنّى لِما بِيابِـيَ الـيَـأسُ أَو داءُ الهُيامِ أَصابَني ~~~~ فَـإِيّـاكَ عَـنّي لا يَكُن بِكَ ما بِياإِذا مـا اِستَطالَ الدَهرُ يا أُمَّ مالِكٍ ~~~~ فَـشَـأنُ الـمَنايا القاضِياتِ وَشانِياإِذا اِكـتَحَلَت عَيني بِعَينِكِ لَم تَزَل ~~~~ بِـخَـيـرٍ وَجَلَّت غَمرَةً عَن فُؤادِيافَأَنتِ الَّتي إِن شِئتِ أَشقَيتِ عِيشَتي ~~~ وَأَنـتِ الَّـتي إِن شِئتِ أَنعَمتِ بالِيا” - قيس بن الملوح

125. “Oh dear sunday, I want to sleep in your arms and have fun day.” - Santosh Kalwar

126. “Thoughts as warm as a silky summer rain, flowing over the edge of my soul's gentle.not tides returning them along the shoreline to laughing gulls.” - Basith

127. “Our age has built itself vast reservoirs of power / formless as the straining energy that it wrests from the earth.” - Rainer Maria Rilke

128. “Bezgove ure"To je stari bezeg za hišo. To so bezgove ure.Grozljivo zelena tesnoba listov.Črnikasta barva jagod. Grenki bezgov čas pred nevihto. Pod zidom vetje kopriv.Nepokošena trava.Za zidom soba.Preležani duh samskih stricev.Votlo bezgovo steblo nedelje.Poobedna tihota.Rdečkasti peclji jagod.Njihov plehki, pusti okusv bezgovem spancu.Sladke sline zorijov medlečih ustih dečkov,ki slonijo ob bezgovih bokih hiš.” - Kajetan Kovič

129. “...feel the fierce way desiretourniquets itself around you andclingsClubland South of Market tweak-chic trannies powder their noses frombullet-shaped compacts and flick their forkedtongues like switchblades as they burn the nightdown bleed day to night to day toMission sidewalks where pythons hidetwenty dollar balloons beneath their tongues whichget bartered in smiles quicker than a coke buzz andtossed out through the cracksCottonmouth kissescamouflage emotions andstrike with a vengeancewhen hewants and shewants and theywant and Iwon'tGenet was right, I supposewhen he wrote "The only wayto avoid the horror of horror isto give in to it"it'sthe nature ofthe economy of thebusiness it's thenature ofthings...” - Clint Catalyst

130. “i was really into communal living and we were all /such free spirits, crossing the country we were /nomads and artists and no one ever stopped / to think about how the one working class housemate / was whoring to support a gang of upper middle class / deadheads with trust fund safety nets and connecticut / childhoods, everyone was too busy processing their isms / to deal with non-issues like class....and it’s just so cool / how none of them have hang-ups about / sex work they’re all real / open-minded real / revolutionary you know / the legal definition of pimp is / one who lives off the earnings of / a prostitute, one or five or / eight and i’d love to stay and / eat some of the stir fry i’ve been cooking / for y’all but i’ve got to go fuck / this guy so we can all get stoned and / go for smoothies tomorrow, save me / some rice, ok?” - Michelle Tea

131. “Please let me know if I am not hereLet me know if I fail to find you thereFor before the dawn I leave the night behind meAnd before my heart I let you leave me behind.” - Munia Khan

132. “The untented Kosmos my abode,I pass, a wilful stranger:My mistress still the open roadAnd the bright eyes of danger.” - R.L.S.