"You don’t have to suffer to be a poet; adolescence is enough suffering for anyone." ― John Ciardi Topic(s): Poetry More From John Ciardi "Intelligence recognizes what has happened. Genius recognizes what will happen." "Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves that they have a better idea." "Poetry lies its way to the truth." More In Poetry "Because, in fact, women, feminists, do read my poetry, and they read it often with the power of their political interpretation. I don’t care; that’s what poetry is supposed to do."― Diane Wakoski "I’ve written some poetry I don’t understand myself."― Carl Sandburg "I certainly derived my skills as a prose writer from my scrutiny of poetry and of the individual word. But schools don’t do things like that anymore – tracking words down to their roots."― Camille Paglia