I say, Father, the years have brought me here, still your son, they have brought me to a life I cannot understand.

You have to follow where the poem leads. And it will surprise you. It will say things you didn't expect to say. And you look at the poem and you realize, 'That is truly what I felt.' That is truly what I saw.

I write what's given me to write.

I'm afraid we live at the mercy of a power, maybe a God, without mercy. And yet we find it, as I have, from others.

My earliest poems were a way of talking to somebody. I suppose to myself.

Listen to these young poets and you'll discover the voice of the present and hear the voice of the future before the future is even here.

I listen to jazz about three hours a day. I love Louis Armstrong.