"
the best poems
it seems to me
are written out of
an ultimate
need.
and once the poem is written,
the only need
after that
is to write another.
and the silence
of the printed page
is the
best response
to a finished
work.
in decades past
I once warned
some poet-friends
of mine
about the masturbatory
nature of poetry readings
done just
for the applause of
a handful of
idiots.
‘isolate yourself and
do your work and if you
must mix, then do it
with those who
have no interest at all
in what you consider
so
important.’
"
