If you have the words, there's always a chance that you'll find the way.

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.

Suspect too much sweet talk but never close your mind.

As writers and readers, as sinners and citizens, our realism and our aesthetic sense make us wary of crediting the positive note.

In off the moors, down through the mist beams, god-cursed Grendel came greedily loping.

Harvard meant a lot in my writing life from the beginning, even though I didnt actually do much composition on the spot.

I am not a playwright. A playwright would take "Antigone" and hit it a few clouts and knock it out of shape and restructure it. My versioning was strictly verbal.