A. R. Ammons

"Is it not careless to become too local when there are four hundred billion stars in our galaxy alone."

"Everything is discursive opinion instead of direct experience."

"Even if you walk exactly the same route each time - as with a sonnet - the events along the route cannot be imagined to be the same from day to day, as the poet's health, sight, his anticipations, moods, fears, thoughts cannot be the same."

"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.'"

"Probably all the attention to poetry results in some value, though the attention is more often directed to lesser than to greater values."

"I am grateful for - though I can't keep up with - the flood of articles, theses, and textbooks that mean to share insight concerning the nature of poetry."