It’s seldom a question of knowing when to say when, but of working it out. When I write a poem there are a hundred right ways to say what needs to be said. My primary urge is to express the thing new to me. Then I want to say it well—so you will want to pay attention—and then so you will carry it further. Because of these hundred right ways there is no perfect wording, so I have to choose to say when the end has come, when to let it go on its way. When it comes my time to die, perhaps it will be like this.
A word too far in a poem
Can undo the life it brings
:- Doug.
