"A poem is free, and it shows its freedom by establishing its own principles."

“I am very interested in memorization which is the process of incorporating a poem, so, I would say the kind of poetry I write is the kind that emphasises the physical qualities of the words.”

“Craft is something you learn by studying models.When a student asks, what is a good book about traditional iambic verse, The Collected Poems of Ben Jonson. What is an excellent book about free verse? The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams. What is a good book about short line in ballad metre? The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson.”

“It is the nature of poetry to emphasize that the physical sounds of words come from a particular body , one at a time, in a particular order.”

“No aspect of a poem is more singular, more unique, than its rhythm.”

“The poetry I love is written with someone’s voice and I believe its proper culmination is to be read with someone’s voice. And the human voice in that sense is not electronically reproduced or amplified.”

“An artist needs not so much an audience, as to feel a need to answer, a promise to respond....a good feeling about his art.”