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.

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.

The completely solitary self: that's where poetry comes from, and it gets isolated by crisis, and those crises are often very intimate also.

Irish readers, British readers, American readers: is it odd that I haven't a clue about how differently they react? Or better say, I cannot find the words to describe my hunch about them.

The next move is always the test.

I suppose I did feel a certain public pressure always.

Two buckets were easier carried than one. / I grew up in between.