Peter Davison

“Every so often I find some poems that are too good for the readers of The Atlantic because they are a little too involved with the nature of poetry, as such.”

“Poetry is composing for the breath.”

“For instance, it's a little better now than it was two or three years ago, but something like 70% of the poems I receive seem to be written in the present indicative.”

“People are talking about the Internet as though it is going to change the world. It's not going to change the world. It's not going to change the way we think, and it's not going to change the way we feel.”

“The relation between a poet and audience is really insignificant. What matters is the poet is hearing something that he is broadcasting. And whether there is anybody with a receiver isn't the reason he does it. He hopes there is somebody receiving it.”

“In order to understand what they need to understand, in order to write what they write, they have to be free. And yet, they aren't ever free. They are not free because they are not free of the constrictions their art puts on them.”

“It is very difficult for people to come in contact with their own emotions and their own sensibilities.”

“I would like to be proud of having written some poems that will be remembered, but I will never know whether I will have any reason to be proud of that.”

“Dealing with poetry is a daunting task, simply because the reason one does it as an editor at all is because one is constantly coming to terms with one's own understanding of how to understand the world.”

“There are so many things that poetry is about, one of which is memory.”

“In my youth, I found that I was quite often inspired and pushed forward by what I read.”