“I rhymeTo see myself, to set the darkness echoing.”

“All I know is a door into the dark”

“I shall gain glory or die.”

“I suppose I'm saying that defiance is actually part of the lyric job”

“I can't think of a case where poems changed the world, but what they do is they change people's understanding of what's going on in the world.”

“Once off the bushThe fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.I always felt like crying. It wasn't fairThat all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not.-Blackberry picking”

“Now it’s high watermark and floodtide in the heartand time to go.The sea-nymphs in the spraywill be the chorus now.What’s left to say?Suspect too much sweet-talkbut never close your mind.It was a fortunate windthat blew me here. I leavehalf-ready to believe that a crippled trust might walkand the half-true rhyme is love.”