For the first day of N.P.M., I thought some quotes about poetry would be an appropriate start:

“Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.”
—T. S. Eliot
         Of course Eliot would have this to say about poetry.

“If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.”
― Charles Darwin, The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, 1809–82
           Glad a scientist said this…

“To be a poet is a condition, not a profession.”
― Robert Frost
          And what a condition it is.

“Poetry is like making a joke.  If you get one word wrong at the end of a joke, You’ve lost the whole thing.”
–W.S. Merwin
        My favorite quote about poetry.