A poem begins with a lump in the throat; a homesickness or a love sickness. It is a reaching-out toward expression; an effort to find fulfillment. A complete poem is one where an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.

Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting.

I am not a nature poet. There is almost always a person in my poems.

Never discuss the poem you contemplate writing. It's like turning on the outside spigot. It takes all the pressure off the upstairs bathroom.

I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing a poem is discovering.

Every poem is a momentary stay against the confusion of the world.