I would keep in mind to a young poet that you are entering into something that is very important, that has always been important in terms of human concerns.

One of the deep fundamentals of poetry is the recurrence of sounds, syllables, words, phrases, lines, and stanzas. Repetition can be one of the most intoxicating features of poetry. It creates expectations, which can be fulfilled or frustrated. It can create a sense of boredom and complacency, but it can also incite enchantment and inspire bliss.

A poem is a hand, a hook, a prayer. It is a soul in action.

And when you are entering into poetry, whatever stage you're at, you are participating in something with a very long and noble tradition.

I guess that would have been 1968. I was a freshman in college and I wasn't writing good poems, but I was at least trying to write poems then.

Reading poetry is an adventure in renewal, a creative act, a perpetual beginning, a rebirth of wonder.

Poetry connects us to what is deepest in ourselves. It gives us access to our own feelings, which are often shadowy, and engages us in the art of making meaning. It widens the space of our inner lives. It is a magical, mysterious, inexplicable (though not incomprehensible) event in language.