It is not possible, for a poet, writing in any language, to protect himself from the tragic elements in human life.... [ellipsis in source] Illness, old age, and death--subjects as ancient as humanity--these are the subjects that the poet must speak of very nearly from the first moment that he begins to speak.

At midnight tears Run into your ears.

I have lost faith in universal panaceas - work is the one thing in which I really believe.

I'll lie here and learn How, over their ground, Trees make a long shadow And a light sound.

What we suffer, what we endure, what we muff, what we kill, what we miss, what we are guilty of, is done by us, as individuals, in private.

Your work is carved out of agony as a statue is carved out of marble.

Poetry is often generations in advance of the thought of its time.