American - Poet | September 10, 1935 -
Walks work for me. I enter some arena that is neither conscious or unconscious.
Mary Oliver
WorkMeWalksUnconsciousSome
It's very important to write things down instantly, or you can lose the way you were thinking out a line. I have a rule that if I wake up at 3 in the morning and think of something, I write it down. I can't wait until morning - it'll be gone.
MorningWaitWake UpThinkThinking
I consider myself kind of a reporter - one who uses words that are more like music and that have a choreography. I never think of myself as a poet; I just get up and write.
MusicMyselfWordsThinkKindNever
We all have a hungry heart, and one of the things we hunger for is happiness. So as much as I possibly could, I stayed where I was happy.
HappinessHeartHappyHungryHunger
One thing I do know is that poetry, to be understood, must be clear.
PoetryKnowClearMustUnderstood
Sometimes breaking the rules is extending the rules.
RulesSometimesBreakingExtending
Wasn't it Emerson who said, 'My life is for itself and not for a spectacle'? I have a happy, full, good life because I hold it private.
LifeGoodHappyMy LifeGood Life
I was very careful never to take an interesting job. If you have an interesting job, you get interested in it.
JobInterestingYouNeverTakeGet
I simply do not distinguish between work and play.
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I very much wished not to be noticed, and to be left alone, and I sort of succeeded.
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At the time I was growing up, literature was involved with the so-called confessional poets. And I was not interested in that. I did not think that specific and personal perspective functioned well for the reader at all.
TimePerspectiveGrowing UpThinkUp
I always feel that whatever isn't necessary shouldn't be in a poem.
FeelAlwaysWhateverPoemNecessary
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