"The secret of poetry is never explained,—..." - Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Man sheds grief as his skin sheds rain.”

“He walks abreast with his days and feels no shame in not 'studying a profession', for he does not postpone his life, but lives already. He has not one chance, but a hundred chances.”

“Life is a perpetual instruction in cause and effect.”

“I wrote some of the worst poetry west from the Mississippi River, but I wrote. And I finally sometimes got it right.”

“If a man comes to the door of poetry untouched by the madness of the Muses, believing that technique alone will make him a good poet, he and his sane compositions never reach perfection, but are utterly eclipsed by the performances of the inspired madman.”

“I always feel that whatever isn't necessary shouldn't be in a poem.”

“What is required is sight and insight- then you might add one more: excite.”

“Gather quicklyOut of darknessAll the songs you knowAnd throw them at the sunBefore they meltLike snow.”

“Genius never desires what does not exist.”