I have always made my own rules, in poetry as in life - though I have tried of late to cooperate more with my family. I do, however, believe that without order or pattern poetry is useless.

Each word bears its weight, so you have to read my poems quite slowly.

Blackbirds are the cellos of the deep farms.

The sea is as near as we come to another world.

A poem might be defined as thinking about feelings - about human feelings and frailties.

I married a young Englishman in Cambridge in 1955 and have lived in Britain every since.

There's no friend like someone who has known you since you were five.

There is far too much literary criticism of the wrong kind. That is why I never could have survived as an academic.

Poets should ignore most criticism and get on with making poetry.

Yes, I do often write poems from the mind, but I hope I don't ignore feelings and emotions.

I like rhyme because it is memorable, I like form because having to work to a pattern gives me original ideas.

By push of bayonets, no firing until you see the whites in their eyes!

I've met people who were destroyed by Donald Trump.

Don King is a hip exploiter, an intelligent flesh peddler

From the earliest wars of men to our last heart-breaking worldwide effort, all we could do was kill ourselves. Now we are able to kill the future.

By cool Siloam's shady rill How sweet the lily grows!

Some people want to be bank presidents. Other people want to rob banks.

The drunken man is a living corpse.

You cannot fail at meditation.

A teacher enlarges people in all sorts of ways besides just his subject matter.