I heard a bird congratulating itself all day for being a jay. Nobody cared. But it was glad all over again, and said so, again.

Everyone is born a poet - a person discovering the way words sound and work, caring and delighting in words. I just kept on doing what everyone starts out doing. The real question is: Why did other people stop?

People wander about what you are pursuing. You have to explain about the thread.

...What you fear will not go away; it will take you into yourself and bless you and keep you. That's the world, and we all live there.

There are so many things admirable people do not understand.

A poem is a serious joke, a truth that has learned jujitsu.

I have a feeling that art is something you do for yourself, and that any time you turn your decisions over to someone else you're postponing at best, your own development. The atmosphere of the workshop should be that of trying out one's own work and accepting the signals from others but not accepting the dictation of others because that is a violation of the spirit of art. Art can't be done by somebody else, it has got to be done by the artist.