Insofar as poetry has a social function it is to awaken sleepers by other means than shock.

I'm not very good at praying, but what I experience when I'm writing a poem is close to prayer.

Every day, every day I hear enough to fill a year of nights with wondering.

You have come to the shore. There are no instructions.

The world is not with us enough. O taste and see.

In the dark I rest, unready for the light which dawns day after day, eager to be shared. Black silk, shelter me. I need more of the night before I open eyes and heart to illumination. I must still grow in the dark like a root not ready, not ready at all.

When you're really caught up in writing a poem, it can be a form of prayer. I'm not very good at praying, but what I experience when I'm writing a poem is close to prayer. I feel it in different degrees and not with every poem. But in certain ways writing is a form of prayer.