I have never separated the writing of poetry from prayer. I have grown up believing it is a vocation, a religious vocation.

The voice does go up in a poem. It is an address, even if it is to oneself.

The classics can console. But not enough.

Americans are not brought up with meter. They're not brought up with poetry. If you try to get them to recite, they're too embarrassed.

Slowly my body grows a single sound, slowly I become a bell, an oval, disembodied vowel, I grow, an owl, an aureole, white fire poesia "Metamorfosi, I. Luna

All of Victorian verse is pentameter.

The time will come when, with elation, you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror, and each will smile at the other’s welcome.