Contemporary poets are skeptical and suspicious even, or perhaps especially, about themselves. They publicly confess to being poets only reluctantly, as if they were a little ashamed of it. But in our clamorous times it's much easier to acknowledge your faults, at least if they're attractively packaged, than to recognize your own merits, since these are hidden deeper and you never quite believe in them yourself.

I'm old-fashioned and think that reading books is the most glorious pastime that humankind has yet devised.

Nothing's a gift, it's all on loan

And whatever I do will become forever what I've done.

Even a graphomaniac is an extremely complicated person.

Every beginning is only a sequel, after all, and the book of events is always open halfway through.

But they know about us, they know, the four corners, and the chairs nearby us. Discerning shadows also know, and even the table keeps quiet.