“Poetry is the sound of the human animal.”

“In the wall-less house of sounds, humans became the animals that come together by listening. Whatever else they might be, they are sonospheric communards.”

“Everything that motivates living creatures is based onsome weakness or flaw. Hunger motivates animals. Lustmotivates animals. Fear and pain motivate animals. A Godwould have none of those impulses. Humans are driven byall of our animal passions plus loftier-sounding things likeself-actualization and creativity and freedom and love”

“Poetry is a sound, asking the shadow to dance”

“Poetry is the journal of the sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air. Poetry is a search for syllables to shoot at the barriers of the unknown and the unknowable. Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away.”

“. . . poetry, like all imaginative creations, divines the human enterprise. This is poetry's social value.”