Scholars look for final truths they will never find. Creative writers concern themselves with possibilities that are always there to the receptive.

I think it's better if you write poems that look like you.

An act of imagination is an act of self-acceptance.

Think small.... If you can't think small, try philosophy or social criticism.

Lucky accidents seldom happen to writers who don't work. You will find that you may rewrite and rewrite a poem and it never seems quite right. Then a much better poem may come rather fast and you wonder why you bothered with all that work on the earlier poem. Actually, the hard work you do on one poem is put in on all poems. The hard work on the first poem is responsible for the sudden ease of the second. If you just sit around waiting for the easy ones, nothing will come. Get to work.

Never want to say anything so strongly that you give up the option of finding something better. If you have to say it, you will.

A good creative-writing teacher can save a good writer a lot of time.