Mostly the thought and the verse come inseparably. In my poem Poetics, it's as close as I come to telling how I do it.
Howard Nemerov

Nothing in the universe can travel at the speed of light, they say, forgetful of the shadow's speed.
Howard Nemerov

Obvious enough that generalities work to protect the mind from the great outdoors; is it possible that this was in fact their first purpose?
Howard Nemerov

Occasionally a student writer comes up with something really beautiful and moving, and you won't know for years if it was an accident or the first burst of something wonderful.
Howard Nemerov

Once in awhile you have a thought, and you rhyme it.
Howard Nemerov

Robert Frost had always said you mustn't think of the last line first, or it's only a fake poem, not a real one. I'm inclined to agree.
Howard Nemerov

Shakespeare tells the same stories over and over in so many guises that it takes a long time before you notice.
Howard Nemerov

The historian is terribly responsible to what he can discern are the facts of the case, but he's nothing if he doesn't make out a case.
Howard Nemerov

The nice thing about the Bible is it doesn't give you too many facts. Two an a half lines and it tells you the whole story and that leaves you a great deal of freedom to elaborate on how it might have happened.
Howard Nemerov

The secrets of success are a good wife and a steady job. My wife told me.
Howard Nemerov

The spirit world doesn't admit to communicating with me, so it's fairly even.
Howard Nemerov

We're not in love with Literature all the time - especially when you have to teach it every day.
Howard Nemerov

When I was starting to write, the great influence was T.S. Eliot and after that William Butler Yeats.
Howard Nemerov

When modern writers gave up telling stories, they gave up the greatest thing we had.
Howard Nemerov

When Robert Frost was alive, I was known as the other new England poet, which is to be barely known at all.
Howard Nemerov

When you write it doesn't occur to you that somebody could think different from what you do.
Howard Nemerov

Write what you know. That should leave you with a lot of free time.
Howard Nemerov