Poetry is one of the original arts, and it began, as did all the fine arts, within the original wilderness of the earth.

Writing a poem ... is a kind of possible love affair between something like the heart (that courageous but also shy factory of emotion) and the learned skills of the conscious mind.

The poet must not only write the poem but must scrutinize the world intensely, or anyway that part of the world he or she has taken for subject. If the poem is thin, it is likely so not because the poet does not know enough words, but because he or she has not stood long enough among the flowers--has not seen them in any fresh, exciting, and valid way.

So come to the pond, or the river of your imagination, or the harbor of your longing, and put your lips to the world. And live your life.

Every word is a messenger. Some have wings; some are filled with fire; some are filled with death.

In college, you learn how to learn. Four years is not too much time to spend at that.

After a cruel childhood, one must reinvent oneself. Then reimagine the world.