I do not play the instrument In longing but in quest Not to be undertaken Not to be lost In a forest of bliss.

I do not play the instrument In longing but in quest Not to be undertaken Not to be lost In a forest of bliss.

What separates the professionally successful ... from all the rest is their ability to stay steady, to have stamina. It is one thing to write a good sentence, another to write a good book.

When I moved to New York, the reputation just followed me, and I am regularly invited to play in home games, by writers in particular, though finance folk also invite me on occasion.

Poetry is God's work.

The ghosts of Rilke and Wordsworth--along with the 300+ MFA programs, which now seem to employ all Living Poets--have misled the American public egregiously into thinking that poets are morally pure and/or useless.

I'm more interested in the writing than in the content per se (good writing can be about wallpaper and I'll devour it).