“I think as a young poet I looked for what Keats called ‘a fine excess,’ but as an old poet I look for spareness and rigor and a world of compassion.” –Stanley Kunitz

Eavan Boland writes of being young and wanting to hear the narrative of a woman and poet “who had made the life meet the work and had set it down: the difficulties and rewards, the senses of lack. I remember thinking that it need not be perfect or important. Just there; just available.”