No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.

The people I want to hear about are the people who take risks.

The nearest friends can go With anyone to death, comes so far short They might as well not try to go at all.

I am not a nature poet. There is almost always a person in my poems.

We can make a little order where we are, and then the big sweep of history on which we can have no effect doesn't overwhelm us. We do it with colors, with a garden, with the furnishings of a room, or with sounds and words. We make a little form, and we gain composure.

So was I once myself a swinger of birches. And so I dream of going back to be.

Poets like Shakespeare know more about poetry than any $25 an hour man.