The imperfect is our paradise.

Most poets who have little or nothing to say are concerned primarily with the way in which they say it ... if it is true that the style of a poem and the poem itself are one, ... it may be ... that the poets who have little or nothing to say are, or will be, the poets that matter.

in the presence of extraordinary actuality, consciousness takes the place of imagination.

How full of trifles everything is! It is only one's thoughts that fill a room with something more than furniture.

My tribute to mystical, magical trees that the Cherokee called "standing people. . . ."

The poet's function is to make his imagination . . . become the light in the mind of others. His role, in short, is to help people to live their lives.

Poetry has to be something more than a conception of the mind. It has to be a revelation of nature. Conceptions are artificial. Perceptions are essential.