Once every five hundred years or so, a summary statement about poetry comes along that we can't imagine ourselves living without.

The poet exposes himself to the risk. All that has been said about poetry, all that he has learned about poetry, is only a partial assurance.

Is it not careless to become too local when there are four hundred billion stars in our galaxy alone.

If we ask a vague question, such as, 'What is poetry?' we expect a vague answer, such as, 'Poetry is the music of words,' or 'Poetry is the linguistic correction of disorder.'

Poetry leads us to the unstructured sources of our beings, to the unknown, and returns us to our rational, structured selves refreshed.

Probably all the attention to poetry results in some value, though the attention is more often directed to lesser than to greater values.