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Some of his own closeness to nature, his great love for human beings, was passed on by Whitman to all of us who knew and loved him.

I think Whitman more than any other poet possessed the gift of revealing to others the beauty of everything around us, the beauty of nature, the beauty of human beings.

In poetry, you must love the words, the ideas and the images and rhythms with all your capacity to love anything at all.

I always knew in my heart Walt Whitman's mind to be more like my own than any other man's living. As he is a very great scoundrel this is not a pleasant confession.

I like poems that inspire, that make us think and reflect. It's like putting love into the world for whoever picks it up.

Love is the poetry of the senses.

Poetry gives us courage and sets us straight with the world. Poems are great companions and friends.

My beloved husband goes through radiation, and a book of sonnets is my passionate response. And then after he dies, I write another book of poems as a farewell. The two keywords here are passion and joy. I simply have a passion for writing, and I do it with joy.

The commitment to working at poetry is important because a poet is a maker, and a poem is a made thing. We have to honor our feelings by working to transform them into something meaningful and lasting.