The ear is the only true writer and the only true reader.

Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.

Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.

Poetry is about the grief. Politics is about the grievance.

If society fits you comfortably enough, you call it freedom.

I hate the idea that you ought to read the whole of anybody.

Poetry should be common in experience but uncommon in books.

Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.

Let cloud shapes swarm, / Let chaos storm, / I wait for form.

The people I want to hear about are the people who take risks.

Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.

I believe in teaching, but I don’t believe in going to school.

An idea comes as near to something for nothing as you can get.

Man that is of woman born is apt to be as vain has his mother.

Word I was in my life alone, / Word I had no one left but God.

Nature's never quite Sure she hasn't erred In her vague design.

Affection is an overpowering craving to be compellingly sought.

Many lovers have been divorced By having what is free enforced.

Something there is that doesn't love a wall, and wants it down.

I could give all to Time except--except What I myself have held.

A poet never takes notes. You never take notes in a love affair.

I still say the only education worth anything is self-education.

The people I am most afraid of are those who are the most afraid.

The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in wisdom.

I dwell in a lonely house I know That vanished many a summer ago.

Have courage and a little willingness to venture and be defeated.

I hope to leave behind a few poems it will be hard to get rid of.

Out alone in the winter rain, / Intent on giving and taking pain.

What makes a nation in the beginning is a good piece of geography.

Oh, come forth into the storm and rout And be my love in the rain.

Every poem is a momentary stay against the confusion of the world.

I would not come in. I meant not even if asked, And I hadn't been.

God once declared He was true And then took the veil and withdrew.

But I may be one who does not care Ever to have tree bloom or bear.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep but I have promises to keep...

What is done is done for the love of it- or not really done at all.

I'm always saying something that's just the edge of something more.

I am not a nature poet. There is almost always a person in my poems.

Only God and I knew what I meant when I wrote it, now only God knows

How many things have to happen to you before something occurs to you?

One of the hardest things in life to accept is a called third strike.

A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel.

For dear me, why abandon a belief Merely because it ceases to be true

Ends and beginnings—there are no such things. There are only middles.

A champion of the workingman has never been known to die of overwork.

More men die of worry than of work, because more men worry than work.

If you're looking for something to be brave about, consider fine arts.

When work becomes play, and play becomes your work, your life unfolds.

I have wished a bird would fly away, And not sing by my house all day.

Poets like Shakespeare know more about poetry than any $25 an hour man.

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