Blackbirds are the cellos of the deep farms.

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.

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

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

I like rhyme because it is memorable, I like form because having to work to a pattern gives me original ideas.

I remain loyal to Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert in music and to Shakespeare and Jane Austen in literature.

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.