It Was As If Pain Were A

Reading A Good Poem Can Give Me A Far Bigger Kick Than A Novel. But It's Not Something I Can Keep Doing. It Would Be Like Shooting Up 10 Times A Day.

It Was As If Pain Were A Room He Had Entered And The Door Had Been Locked Behind Him.

I Can't Believe There Is A Poet Who Hasn't Eagerly Put Down A Word One Day, Only To Erase It The Next Day Deciding It Was Sheer Lunacy. It's Part Of The Process Of Selection.

I Had A Period When I Read Nobel Prize Winners. I Figured They Had To Be Good. I Discovered Some People I Didn't Know About, Like The Icelandic Writer Halldor Laxness, Who Wrote "independent People." .

I Remember Coming Upon Philip Larkin In My 20s In The Early '60s And When Sylvia Plath's "ariel" Came Out It Knocked Me Off My Feet.