Poetry is what happens when nothing else can.

It was only the matter of a new voice. Nobody listened to an old voice anymore. Old voices became a part of one's self, like a fingernail.

when the phone rings I too would like to hear words that might ease some of this.

Most people are not ready for death, theirs or anybody elses.

Sweet Christ, you must know that a man will go further for any poem than for any woman ever born.

What good are you? What can you do? It has cost me a thousands of dollars to raise you, feed you, clothe you! Suppose I left you here on the street? Then what would you do?" "Catch butterflies

Once a woman turns against you, forget it. They can love you, then something turns in them. They can watch you dying in a gutter, run over by a car, and they'll spit on you.