Dennis O'Driscoll Quotes

Poetry is a highly visible art in Ireland ; in our rapidly secularised society, it has become a kind of erzatz religion, applying the elevated ceremonial language without the divisive doctrine.

I am very driven when it comes to poetry, a complete obsessive of the truth be told.

Usually what is termed 'Inspiration' means the ingredients are garnered for you and you must concoct a suitable recipe.

The priority for the poet must be his poetry, the poetry must determine his agenda and deadlines

I know I am in the grip of a true poem when I can hardly bear to read it calmly at first.

If poets spoke their poetry , they would not need to write it.

Seamus Heaney is no more Irish than that other poet of the local, universal and eternal , James Joyce. Both men think locally and globally.

Everybody has certain preoccupations they return to.What looks like an obsession, is often something more modest, namely a return to the fray through a somewhat different angle of vision..from a different stage of your experience.

Poetry is most convincing when its elements have been lived.

I put all my poetry in long hand, try to let the idea marinate as long as possible, clinging to the commonplace notion of a creative connection between the movement of the hand and the flow of imagination.

Language is at the heart of poetry and it is difficult to commandeer words which elicit no personal echo . Of what we can speak, we need not be silent.

Poetry is nothing less than an aspiration to absolute truth.

I love the way form and rhythm can somehow confer a higher destiny on even the most workaday words.

Genuine poetry reminds us how little we truly know, it is a vehicle for discovery, not a conduit for omniscience.

I am wedded to the notion that Inspiration is the sine que non , the non negotiable prelude to writing a poem.