Galway Kinnell

On After Making Love We Hear Footsteps

“I really enjoyed this poem. I read it first in my English 112 class and thought it was really sweet. I think you have to be a parent to understand the poem and see the beauty in it - other wise you might not understand it. I loke how the Child sees the parents "loving and snuggling" and wants to…”

On Wait

“"Wait" is one of Kinnell's great short poems. He writes deliberately, which means that every word he writes is chosen consciously and for a reason. Thus it is disheartening,--no, infuriating--to see his poem misprinted here and on other online venues. Find the book Mortal Acts Mortal Words, read…”

On Fergus Falling

“This guy is undoubtedly a poet - look at the first lines. But does he need to discipline himself more? There's a tremendous thought in the first lines which seems to peter out. Maybe I'm too lazy, or maybe he expects his reader to work too hard.”

On How Could You Not

“the poet imagines the last moments of Jane Kenyon's passing as if to comfort her by speaking to her of the rightness and inevitability of her separation from her life...that she has spoken what needed to be spoken in words (and in poems) and can leave with a sense of peace...as if these are his…”

On Oatmeal

“This version of Oatmeal has lots of "extra" lines not in my book copy of the poem. WOndering if someone has been doing creative writing, or if Mr. Kinnell did several official versions of the poem.”