What you need for poetry is a body and a voice. It
Doesn’t have to be a great body or a great voice. But
It ought ideally to be your body, and it ought to be your
Voice.

The parent helps the child discover what may be done
With its lips and its limbs. This is the first poetry.

A sort of night the falls – a melancholy mercy – after
Which the initiation is mysteriously forgotten. This is
The primal erasure.

The remainder of our lives is spent in recapturing that
Initial sense of discovery. This is the poetry.

But the wisdom of the age has forbidden us the use of
Our lips and limbs. This wisdom is the enemy of
Poetry.

James Fenton