Your Work Is Carved Out Of Agony

It Is Not Possible, For A Poet, Writing In Any Language, To Protect Himself From The Tragic Elements In Human Life.... [ellipsis In Source] Illness, Old Age, And Death--subjects As Ancient As Humanity--these Are The Subjects That The Poet Must Speak Of Very Nearly From The First Moment That He Begins To Speak.

Up From The Bronze, I Saw Water Without A Flaw Rush To Its Rest In Air Reach To Its Rest, And Fall.

Intellectuals Range Through The Finest Gradations Of Kind And Quality: From Those Who Are Merely Educated Neurotics, Usually With Strong Hidden Reactionary Tendencies, Through Mediocrities Of All Kinds, To Men Of Real Brains And Sensibility, More Or Less Stiffened Into Various Respectabilities Or Substitutes For Respectability. The Number Of Ignorant Specialists Is Large. The Number Of Hysterics And Compulsives Is Also Large.

Your Work Is Carved Out Of Agony As A Statue Is Carved Out Of Marble.

The Initial Mystery That Attends Any Journey Is: How Did The Traveler Reach His Starting Point In The First Place?