War met him, and fell pestilence,
Sore toil and want, all the dread foes of every day;
These he struck down, then went he hence,
Sent by a soft cat-thing that clawed him in her play.
A poet needs to keep his wilderness alive inside him. To remain a poet after forty requires an awareness of your darkest Africa, that part of yourself that will never be tamed.
• Stanley Kunitz