Wherever that man went, he went gratefully.

Poetry is language in orbit.

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.

If self is a location, so is love: Bearings taken, markings, cardinal points, Options, obstinacies, dug heels, and distance, Here and there and now and then, a stance.

The aim of poetry and the poet is finally to be of service, to ply the effort of the individual into the larger work of the community as a whole.

If self is a location, so is love.

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