And I could see that child's one eye which seemed to laugh, and say with glee: 'what caused my death you'll never know, perhaps my mother murdered me.' - W.H. Davies - 'The Inquest'

That self-same stuff which erst proud empires swayed, of which the conquerers of the world were made. - Hannah More 'Slavery: A Poem'

And die of nothing but a rage to live

Poetry matters because it is a tool for helping us to discover who we are. As individuals, as Caribbean peoples, as citizens of the world. Olive Senior

How you became a poet's a mystery! / Where did you get your talent from? / I say: I had two uncles, Joe and Harry - / one was a stammerer, the other dumb.- 'Heredity', Tony Harrison

It is not so difficult to kindle the poetic fire in the first place as to keep it going, hot and bright, through a whole lifetime. - Thom Gunn

A little nonsense, now and then, is relished by the wisest men. - 'Charlie & the Chocolate Factory', Roald Dahl

I would say that the poem exists in a space somewhere between the reader and the author, and in a sense belongs to neither, and both. - Don Paterson

Wayfarer, pause. Although you may not see,/Earth's bright children, herbs and flowers, are here:/It is their small essential souls that greet you, - 'Inscription for a Scented Garden for the Blind', John Heath-Stubbs

In my poetry I give primacy to the breath. For me it is the way the poem breathes that gives it form. - Penelope Shuttle

I want that next poem. To get it I'll shed my skin, I'll lose my name, pretend I have no history, be history's fool, become elemental, all of these, none of these. - Fred D'Aguiar