T.S. Eliot's influence was enormous on my generation. Much more than Ezra Pound. I actually had to put T.S. Eliot books out of the house because my poetry was so influenced. Everything I wrote sounded like Eliot.
Don't bow down to critics who have not themselves written great masterpieces.
Make your mind learn its way around the heart.
Poetry is a naked woman, a naked man, and the distance between them.
Invent a new language anyone can understand.
The art has to make it on its own, without explanations, and itโs the same for poetry. If the poem or the painting has to be explained, then itโs a failure in communication.