Autobiographical essay 1970 Truly fine poetry must be read aloud. A good poem does not allow itself to be read in a low voice or silently. Poetry always remembers that it was an oral art before it was a written art. It remembers that it was first song. The fact is that poetry is not the books in the library . . .
Poetry is the encounter of the reader with the book, the discovery of the book.
We feel poetry as we feel the closeness of a woman, or as we feel a mountain or a bay. There are people who barely feel poetry, and they are generally dedicated to teaching it. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art. The Falklands thing was a fight between two bald men over a comb.