I would say that American poetry has always been a poetry of personal testimony.

The future is always beginning now.

We’re only here for a short while. And I think it’s such a lucky accident, having been born, that we’re almost obliged to pay attention.

If every head of state and every government official spent an hour a day reading poetry we'd live in a much more humane and decent world.

Pain is filtered in a poem so that it becomes finally, in the end, pleasure.

Once you start describing nothingness, you end up with somethingness.

Poetry is, first and last, language - the rest is filler.

I feel that anything is possible in a poem.

And at least in poetry you should feel free to lie. That is, not to lie, but to imagine what you want, to follow the direction of the poem.

Ink runs from the corners of my mouth. There is no happiness like mine. I have been eating poetry.

Poems not only demand patience, they demand a kind of surrender. You must give yourself up to them. This is the real food for a poet: other poems, not meat loaf.

Love is a light

People in hell want snowcones.

You have worked too long in the life, now its time for heroism.

I actually lost both my legs. I can walk because I got really good health care.

Actually, I can't imagine anything more tedious than a perfect person, especially if it was someone who also demanded perfection from me.

Don't just get through the day, get FROM the day

There has yet to be a human to survive a span of history without at least one end of the world.

I can remember way back when a liberal was one who was generous with his money.

I have been accused of denying consciousness but I am not conscious of having done so.

Human nature is what Heaven supplies.