A poem is not its words, but the ringing it leaves behind.

Work as if you live in the early days of a better world -- Alasdair Gray via Dennis Lee

'pizzazz, wit and - astonishing at his age - both technical assurance and a genuinely integrated humanity' -- Fiona Sampson

'the sky is a reservoir of wrong-headed questions'. Jack Underwood

A unique and extraordinary body of work. -- Frances Leviston

And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans, my heart gives you love. - Walt Whitman 'Dirge For Two Veterans'

Dear Friend, you must not deem me light if, as I lie and muse to-night, I give a smile and not a sigh to thoughts of our Philosophy. - Amy Levy, 'Philosophy'

Go to thy little senseless play; thou dost not heed my lay. - Joanna Baillie 'A Mother To Her Waking Infant'

What we cannot speak about we must

The composition stage of the poem is not finished until I am satisfied with how the poem works in the mouth and in the ear as well as in relation to its imagery and its meaning.