Nothing we do has the quickness, the sureness, the deep intelligence living at peace would have.

Writing poetry is a process of discovery...you can smell the poem before you see it....Like some animal.

I believe every space and comma is a living part of the poem and has its function, just as every muscle and pore of the body has its function. And the way the lines are broken is a functioning part essential to the life of the poem.

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

We must breathe time as fishes breathe water.

Breathe the sweetness that hovers in August.

I thought I was growing wings— it was a cocoon. I thought, now is the time to step into the fire— it was deep water. Eschatology is a word I learned as a child: the study of Last Things; facing my mirror—no longer young, the news—always of death, the dogs—rising from sleep and clamoring and howling, howling.... ("Seeing For a Moment")