“Backward we traveled to reclaim the dayBefore we fell, like Icarus, undone;All we find are altars in decayAnd profane words scrawled black across the sun.--From the poem "Doom of the Exiles", written 16 April 1954”

“I have suffered the atrocity of sunsets.--from "Elm", written 19 April 1962”

“The night sky is only a sort of carbon paper,Blueblack, with the much-poked periods of starsLetting in the light, peephole after peephole--- A bonewhite light, like death, behind all things.--from "Insomniac", written April 1961”

“Love is a shadow. How you lie and cry after it--from "Elm", written 19 April 1962”

“I have stitched life into me like a rare organ--from "Three Women: A Poem for Three Voices", written 1962”

“Is it the sea you hear in me,Its dissatisfactions?Or the voice of nothing, that was you madness?--from "Elm", written 19 April 1962”

“Mother of otherness, Eat me.--from "Poem for a Birthday - Who", written 1960”