And I a smiling woman. I am only thirty. And like the cat I have nine times to die.

But writing poems and letters doesn't seem to do much good.

I decided I would put off the novel until I had gone to Europe and had a lover, and that I would never learn a word of shorthand. If I never learned shorthand I would never have to use it.

I think the whole emphasis in England, in universities, on practical criticism (but not that so much as on historical criticism, knowing what period a line comes from) this is almost paralysing. In America, in University, we read - what? - T. S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Yeats, that is where we began. Shakespeare flaunted in the background. I'm not sure I agree with this, but I think that' for the young poet, the writing poet, it is not quite so frightening to go to university in America as it is in England, for these reasons.

Doreen had intuition. Everything she said was like a secret voice speaking straight out of my own bones.

Can you understand? Someone, somewhere, can you understand me a little, love me a little?

I think the coming of spring, the stars overhead, the first snowfall and so on are gifts for a child, a young poet.