The fact of the matter is that the most unexpected and miraculous thing in my life was the arrival in it of poetry itself - as a vocation and an elevation almost.

Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests; snug as a gun. ~from the poem "Digging

Then as the years went on and my listening became more deliberate, I would climb up on an arm of our big sofa to get my ear closer to the wireless speaker.

The next move is always the test.

The end of art is peace.

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

In fact, in lyric poetry, truthfulness becomes recognizable as a ring of truth within the medium itself.