There is risk and truth to yourselves and the world before you.

A public expectation, it has to be said, not of poetry as such but of political positions variously approvable by mutually disapproving groups.

Harvard created wonderful conditions for me as a writerbut the writing was done, almost entirely, when I got home.

To begin with, I wanted that truth to life to possess a concrete reliability, and rejoiced most when the poem seemed most direct, an upfront representation of the world it stood in for or stood up for or stood its ground against.

I have begun to think of life as a series of ripples widening out from an original center.

Nowadays, what an award gives is a sense of solidarity with the poetry guild, as it were: sustenance coming from the assent of your peers on the judging panel.

My body was braille for the creeping influences.