Definition, rationality, and structure are ways of seeing, but they become prisons when — A. R. Ammons
The poet exposes himself to the risk. All that has been said about poetry, all that he has — A. R. Ammons
If a poem is each time new, then it is necessarily an act of discovery, a chance taken — A. R. Ammons
Poetry leads us to the unstructured sources of our beings, to the unknown, and returns — A. R. Ammons
If the greatest God is the stillness all the motions add up to, then we must ineluctably be included. — A. R. Ammons
If we ask a vague question, such as, ‘what is poetry?’ we expect a vague answer, such as — A. R. Ammons
I must stress here the point that I appreciate clarity, order, meaning, structure, rationality: — A. R. Ammons
I take the walk to be the externalization of an interior seeking so that the analogy is first — A. R. Ammons
I can’t tell you where a poem comes from, what it is, or what it is for: nor can any other man. — A. R. Ammons