To me, poetry is about survival first of all. Survival of the individual self, survival of the emotional life.

- Gregory Orr

Every breath is a resurrection.

- Gregory Orr

I want language to help us live in a world of wonder/terror/change. I want it to be about "becoming" rather than "being." I think that being and noun…

- Gregory Orr

No one can threaten poetry. It's always been there, always will be. Humans need it to live: it has sustaining powers. How could we (anyone) get throu…

- Gregory Orr

That's crudely put, but If we're not supposed to dance, Why all this music?

- Gregory Orr

When it's right you can't say Who is kissing whom.

- Gregory Orr

Poetry is the thread that leads us out of the labyrinth of despair and into the light.

- Gregory Orr

When you're a young poet, reading is a search for your lost family.

- Gregory Orr

Speaking of people I had to exclude: Hank Williams. which is to say, songs are part of lyric poetry in my book, my thinking. In fact they are the urg…

- Gregory Orr