Poetry is, first and last, language - the rest is filler.

I would say that American poetry has always been a poetry of personal testimony.

And at least in poetry you should feel free to lie. That is, not to lie, but to imagine what you want, to follow the direction of the poem.

But I tend to think of the expressive part of me as rather tedious - never curious or responsive, but blind and self-serving.

Pain is filtered in a poem so that it becomes finally, in the end, pleasure.

The reality of a poem is a very ghostly one. It suggests, it suggests, it suggests again.

If every head of state and every government official spent an hour a day reading poetry we'd live in a much more humane and decent world.