7 Jorge Luis Borges Quotes on Poetry

Jorge Luis Borges quotes on poetry

13. I saw the delicate bone structure of a hand; I saw the survivors of a battle sending out post cards. . . I saw the oblique shadow of some ferns on the floor of a hot-house; I saw tigers, emboli, bison, ground swells and armies; I saw all the ants in the world.

17. Besides, time, which despoils castles, enriches verses . . . Time broadens the scope of verses and I know of some which, like music, are everything for all men.

28. Being with you and not being with you is the only way I have to measure time.

30. Truly fine poetry must be read aloud. A good poem does not allow itself to be read in a low voice or silently. If we can read it silently, it is not a valid poem: a poem demands pronunciation. Poetry always remembers that it was an oral art before it was a written art. It remembers that it was first song.

32. The fact is that poetry is not the books in the library . . . Poetry is the encounter of the reader with the book, the discovery of the book.

34. There are people who barely feel poetry, and they are generally dedicated to teaching it.

    Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

146. 'The central fact of my life has been the existence of words and the possibility of weaving those words into poetry.'