I remember in my early 20s when I felt I couldn't live past 30. I was learning how to write. I had a lot of hard work ahead of me.

Arithmetic is numbers you squeeze from your head to your hand to your pencil to your paper till you get the answer.

Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo. Shovel them under and let me work- I am the grass; I cover all. And pile them high at Gettysburg. And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun. Shovel them under and let me work. Two years, ten years,and passengers ask the conductor- What place is this? Where are we now? I am the grass. Let me work.

Poetry is a kinetic arrangement of static syllables.

I've written some poetry I don't understand myself.

Poetry is any page from a sketchbook of outlines of a doorknob with thumb-prints of dust, blood, dreams.

A liar goes in fine clothes, a liar goes in rags, a liar is a liar, clothes or no clothes.