A poem is a naked person . . . Some people say that I am a poet.

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.

Modern poets talk against business, poor things, but all of us write for money. Beginners are subjected to trial by market.

A poem may be worked over once it is in being, but may not be worried into being.

Poetry is the renewal of words, setting them free, and that's what a poet is doing: loosening the words.

There are three things, after all, that a poem must reach: the eye, the ear, and what we may call the heart or the mind. It is the most important of all to reach the heart of the reader.