The attitude that poetry should not be analyzed is prevalent among many who consider themselves experts on children's literature. But I suspected that kids like to look closely at things and figure out what makes them go.
— X. J. Kennedy
I don't think anybody is a poet 24/7, only in those rare moments when a person is producing a poem.
I like poems where you don't really know whether to laugh or cry when you read them.
My real name is Joe Kennedy, but if you live in Massachusetts, you can't sign 'Joe Kennedy.' So, back in 1957, I stuck the X on my name to be different from those people in Hyannis Port.
To me, a poem that's in rhyme and meter is the difference between watching a film in full color and watching a film in black and white. Not that a few black and white films aren't wonderful. So are certain successful pieces of free verse.
As a writer given to the old formalities of rhyme and meter, I sometimes feel endangered these days.
