A life is not sufficiently elevated for poetry, unless, of course, the life has been made into an art. – Mark Strand
I believe that all poetry is formal in that it exists within limits, limits that are either inherited by tradition or limits that language itself imposes. – Mark Strand
I would say that American poetry has always been a poetry of personal testimony. – Mark Strand
Man desired concord; but nature knows better what is good for his species; she desires discord. Man wants to live easy and content; but nature compels him to leave ease… and throw himself into roils and labors. – Immanuel Kant, Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose, 1787