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

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

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

Not yesterday I learned to know,The love of bare November days,Before the coming of the snow.

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.

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