I think that my first poetic impulse is for music; second a definite conception with the ring of the universe... - Vachel Lindsay

The fact that you can write verse is in itself a certificate that you can write prose.

There were three great Virginia poets in the very beginning — George Washington, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson. “What!” you say. “We do not even know the names of their publishers. They were not poets!” Well, how do you know? Did you ever really read them? What do you know about it? Their very names will breathe poetry forever.

Most of the good poetry, as I have said, has appeared in pamphlet form before the poet was known to the public. It is utterly impossible to make an income from verse, and one must win his worldly standing, and earn his living some other way. One of the most distinguished of the Middle Western poets supports himself by writing a movie column once a day. I do not know a poet in the Anglo-Saxon world who makes his living by poetry. Every single one of them makes his living in some other way.