Writer poet Nature American Poetry For though we often need to be restored to the small, concrete, limited, and certain, we as often need to be reminded of the large, vague, unlimited, unknown. - A. R. Ammons
Poetry The poet exposes himself to the risk. All that has been said about poetry, all that he has learned about poetry, is only a partial assurance. - A. R. Ammons
Disaster May Time If a poem is each time new, then it is necessarily an act of discovery, a chance taken, a chance that may lead to fulfillment or disaster. - A. R. Ammons
Change I must stress here the point that I appreciate clarity, order, meaning, structure, rationality: they are necessary to whatever provisional stability we have, and they can be the agents of gradual and successful change. - A. R. Ammons
Words Music If we ask a vague question, such as, 'What is poetry?' we expect a vague answer, such as, 'Poetry is the music of words,' or 'Poetry is the linguistic correction of disorder.' - A. R. Ammons
Laws May A poem generated by its own laws may be unrealized and bad in terms of so-called objective principles of taste, judgement, deduction. - A. R. Ammons
And History will smile to think that this is the species for which Socrates and Jesus Christ died. - Julien Benda
Bereavement is the sharpest challenge to our trust in God; if faith can overcome this, there is no mountain which it cannot remove. - Dean Inge