My Temperament Is Not Geared To That

I'm Afraid We Live At The Mercy Of A Power, Maybe A God, Without Mercy. And Yet We Find It, As I Have, From Others.

I Still Believe In This Country, That It Can Fulfill The Destiny Blake And Whitman Envisioned. I Still Believe In American Poetry.

Back Then, I Couldn't Have Left A Poem A Year And Gone Back To It.

Now I Think Poetry Will Save Nothing From Oblivion, But I Keep Writing About The Ordinary Because For Me It's The Home Of The Extraordinary, The Only Home.

My Mother Carried On And Supported Us; Her Ambition Had Been To Write Poetry And Songs.