It is absurd to think that the only way to tell if a poem is lasting is to wait and see if it lasts. The right reader of a good poem can tell the moment it strikes him that he has taken an immortal wound-that he will never get over it.

For dear me, why abandon a belief Merely because it ceases to be true

Democracy is the best chance for the best people.

A poem begins with a lump in the throat

Poets are like baseball pitchers. Both have their moments. The intervals are the tough things.

I go to school the youth to learn the future.

Possessing what we still were unpossessed by, Possessed by what we now no more possessed.