Vagueness and procrastination are ever a comfort to the frail in spirit. - John Updike

But for a few phrases from his letters and an odd line or two of his verse, the poet walks gagged through his own biography.

I would write ads for deodorants or labels for catsup bottles, if I had to. The miracle of turning inklings into thoughts and thoughts into words and words into metal and print and ink never palls for me.

How sad, how strange, we make companions out of air and hurt them, so they will defy us, completing creation.