Suspect too much sweet talk but never close your mind.

The poems I did write there [in Harvard] include Alphabets the 1984 Phi Beta Kappa poem and A Sofa in the Forties. And, of course, the John Harvard poem for the 350th anniversary Villanelle for an Anniversary.

All I know is a door into the dark

When I was teaching, I gave a lot of my mind and anxiety to it. There was always something clenched and anxious in me until the classes were over.

Walk on air against your better judgement.

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

I can't think of a case where poems changed the world, but what they do is they change people's understanding of what's going on in the world.