In 1971, when I was 29, I wrote my first volume of poetry. I am a poet, and I have published four books of my poems.

We all write poems; it is simply that poets are the ones who write in words.

I have had much to learn from Sweden's poetry and, more especially, from her lyrics of the last generation.

No, what I should really like to do right now, in the full blaze of lights, before this illustrious assembly, is to shower every one of you with gifts, with flowers, with offerings of poetry - to be young once more, to ride on the crest of the wave.

Poetry is a mere drug, Sir.

Poetry is the elder sister of history, the mother of language, the ancestress of civilization.

For me, poetry was... the fastest way to express what I was feeling, what I was going through.

Poetry must be made by all and not by one.

However, if a poem can be reduced to a prose sentence, there can't be much to it.

I am often asked why I started to write poetry. The answer is that my motivation sprang from a visceral need to creatively articulate the experiences of the black youth of my generation, coming of age in a racist society.

Poetry had far better imply things than preach them directly... in the open pulpit her voice grows hoarse and fails.

So I suppose poetry, language, the shaping of it, was and remains for me an effort to make sense out of essentially senseless situations.

You don't make a poem with ideas, but with words.

A poem can have an impact, but you can't expect an audience to understand all the nuances.

Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket.

To be born in Wales, not with a silver spoon in your mouth, but, with music in your blood and with poetry in your soul, is a privilege indeed.

For me, poetry is always a search for order.