To translate poetry, one has to possess some art, at the very least the art of stylistic re-embodiment.

For darkness restores what light cannot repair.

It's a maddening thing in itself to look at an old poem of yours. To translate it is even more maddening.

Every individual ought to know at least one poet from cover to cover: if not as a guide through the world, then as a yardstick for the language.

My idea is simply - is very simple - is that the books of poetry should be published in far greater volume and be distributed in far greater volume, in far more substantial manner. You can sell in supermarkets very cheaply. In paperbacks. You can sell in drugstores.

This assumption that the blue collar crowd is not supposed to read it, or a farmer in his overalls is not to read poetry, seems to be dangerous if not tragic.