For two decades, I’ve maintained a list of quotes I like by poets, writers, and thinkers I find interesting. This post is part of that series. All posts in the series are organized alphabetically. Some poets and writers have their own dedicated pages.

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All poetry aspires to the condition of music. Which is to say poetry aspires to be heard. Not read. Heard. — Sam Hamill

Do we tend to overexplain ourselves? Absolutely. — Sam Hamill

Even how you break a line is political. — Sam Hamill

I’m often asked ‘Who do you envision as your audience.’ My answer is, I don’t. — Sam Hamill

If you know what the poem is about, you’re already in trouble. — Sam Hamill

In poetry, I don’t have to be an old fat white guy. I can be anyone I want. — Sam Hamill

In the open form, the poem is about the impulse and the discipline to feel that impulse out. — Sam Hamill

Learning to think and act in the active voice is good for you. It breaks slothful habits. — Sam Hamill

Poetry exists as a body attempting communication. — Sam Hamill

Presumably we turn to poetry in part because it has no marketable value. — Sam Hamill

The demands that you make of your readers varies from poem to poem. — Sam Hamill

The only reason I became a poet is because I loved the company. — Sam Hamill

The poem has to be an act of discovery. I insist on this. — Sam Hamill

The possibility of the poem exists in communication. — Sam Hamill

The trick is to feel and think inside the poem, not reflect on thinking and feeling. — Sam Hamill

The way of poetry is a way of being alive. — Sam Hamill

This stuff was settled in the 1950s: The New Critics lost. We won. — Sam Hamill

There’s more jazz than white jazz. Trust me on this. — Sam Hamill

When a poem has no music, it’s prose. I don’t care how you chop up the lines. — Sam Hamill

Write like me: That’s the secret message of every workshop, isn’t it. — Sam Hamill

You can’t write a poem with an audience in mind unless you are writing for children or idiots. — Sam Hamill

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Source: A workshop Sam Hamill led in Seattle in 2008.