A poem might be defined as thinking about feelings - about human feelings and frailties.

I am now seventy, rather glad, really, that I won't live to see the horrors to come in the 21st century.

I have always made my own rules, in poetry as in life - though I have tried of late to cooperate more with my family. I do, however, believe that without order or pattern poetry is useless.

Poets should ignore most criticism and get on with making poetry.

My earlier poems were sadder than my poems are today, perhaps because I wrote them in confusion or when I was unhappy. But I am not a melancholy person, quite the contrary, no one enjoys laughing more than I do.

Blake has always been a favorite, the lyrics, not so much the prophetic books, but I suppose Yeats influenced me more as a young poet, and the American, Robert Frost.

There comes a time when you have to trust your own judgment, when you must close your eyes and let your instinct rule you.