I am tired, Beloved, of chafing my heart against the want of you; of squeezing it into little inkdrops, And posting it.

Rapture's self is three parts sorrow.

I do not suppose that anyone not a poet can realize the agony of creating a poem. Every nerve, even every muscle, seems strained to the breaking point. The poem will not be denied; to refuse to write it would be a greater torture. It tears its way out of the brain, splintering and breaking its passage, and leaves that organ in the state of a jelly-fish when the task is done.

Underneath my stiffened gown Is the softness of a woman bathing in a marble basin, A basin in the midst of hedges grown So thick, she cannot see her lover hiding, But she guesses he is near, And the sliding of the water Seems the stroking of a dear Hand upon her.

Poetry is the most concentrated form of literature; it is the most emotionalized and powerful way in which thought can be presented.

Don’t ask a writer what he’s working on. It’s like asking someone with cancer on the progress of his disease.

Sexual love is the most stupendous fact of the universe, and the most magical mystery our poor blind senses know.