A great many people seem to think writing poetry is worthwhile, even though it pays next to nothing and is not as widely read as it should be.

Each moment is a place you've never been.

In a field I am the absence of field. This is always the case. Wherever I am I am what is missing.

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

And what does it matter when light enters the room where a child sleeps and the waking mother, opening her eyes, wishes more than anything to be unwakened by what she cannot name?

I haven’t met God and I haven’t been to heaven, so I’m skeptical.

I certainly can't speak for all cultures or all societies, but it's clear that in America, poetry serves a very marginal purpose. It's not part of the cultural mainstream.