It hardly seems worthwhile to point out the shortsightedness of those practitioners who would have us believe that the form of the poem is merely its shape.

I tend to like poems that engage me - that is to say, which do not bore me.

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.

I am not concerned with truth, nor with conventional notions of what is beautiful.

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.

A life is not sufficiently elevated for poetry, unless, of course, the life has been made into an art.

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