Statement

It doesn’t matter what the critics say,
I write what interests me in my own way.
I know they have to fill up the reviews
With what is called the literary news
But you and I have our own thoughts to please
And as my poems go by I hope you seize
On one or two that make you nod your head
As if you liked them. Poet Yeats once said
Of poetry and the critics’ wailing wall,
‘‘It’s not a matter of literature at all.’’