The Secret Wish Of Poetry

A Poem Is An Instant Of Lucidity In Which The Entire Organism Participates.

When You Play Chess Alone It's Always Your Move.

Inside My Empty Bottle I Was Constructing A Lighthouse While All Others Were Making Ships.

Here In The United States, We Speak With Reverence Of Authentic Experience. We Write Poems About Our Daddies Taking Us Fishing And Breaking Our Hearts By Making Us Throw The Little Fish Back Into The River. We Even Tell The Reader The Kind Of Car We Were Driving, The Year And The Model, To Give The Impression That It’s All True. It’s Because We Think Of Ourselves As Journalists Of A Kind. Like Them, We’ll Go Anywhere For A Story. Don’t Believe A Word Of It. As Any Poet Can Tell You, One Often Sees Better With Eyes Closed Than With Eyes Wide Open.

Making Art In America Is About Saving One's Soul.