It was difficult being a teacher and out of the closet in the 50s. By the time I retired, the English department was proud of having a gay poet of a certain minor fame. It was a very satisfactory change! – Thom Gunn
There have been two popular subjects for poetry in the last few decades: the Vietnam War and AIDS, about both of which almost all of us have felt deeply. – Thom Gunn
My old teachers definition of poetry is an attempt to understand. – Thom Gunn
My thoughts are crowded with death and it draws so oddly on the sexual that I am confused to be attracted by, in effect, my own annihilation. – Thom Gunn
Of the primary emotions, fear is the one that bears most directly on survival. Children show fear. Adults try not to, maybe because its shameful, or, in some circumstances, dangerous. The fear response is automatic, though, and your body runs through its reflexes whether you want it to or not. – Sebastian Junger