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

Each moment is a place you've never been.

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

Ink runs from the corners of my mouth. There is no happiness like mine. I have been eating poetry.

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

No voice comes from outer space, from the folds of dust and carpets of wind to tell us that this is the way it was meant to happen, that if only we knew how long the ruins would last we would never complain.

From the reader's view, a poem is more demanding than prose.