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Who says my poems are poems?
My poems are not poems.
When you know that my poems are not poems,
Then we can speak of poetry.

— Ryōkan Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf : Zen Poems of Ryokan (1993)

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Notes from Wikiquote

"Zen Poetics of Ryokan" in Simply Haiku: A Quarterly Journal of Japanese Short Form Poetry (Summer 2006)

Variants

/ Who says my poems are poems? My poems are not poems. After you know my poems are not poems, Then we can begin to discuss poetry!

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Poetry

More quotes by Ryōkan

In the scenery of spring,
nothing is better, nothing worse;
The flowering branches are
of themselves, some short, some long.

Haiku : Spring (1950)

In this dream world
We doze
And talk of dreams —
Dream, dream on,
As much as you wish

Lust for Enlightenment : Buddhism and Sex (1990)

The thief left it behind:
the moon
at my window.

The water of the valley stream
Never shouts at the tainted world: “Purify yourself!”
But naturally, as it is,
Shows how it is done.

Zen Poetics of Ryokan (2006)

You must rise above
The gloomy clouds
Covering the mountaintop
Otherwise, how will you
Ever see the brightness?

Lust for Enlightenment : Buddhism and Sex (1990)

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There is a property in the horizon which no man has but he whose eye can integrate all the parts, that is, the poet.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature (1836)

Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality.

T. S. Eliot Tradition and the Individual Talent (1919)

Poetry, unlike oratory, should not aim at clarity...but be dense with meaning, 'something to be chewed and digested'.

George Chapman Ovid's Banquet of Sense (1595)

I am no poet, but if you think for yourselves, as I proceed, the facts will form a poem in your minds.

Michael Faraday

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Ryōkan (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.