“I know that no one would live out Thirty years, fifty years if the world were ending With his life. George Oppen
“Imagine a man in the ditch, The wheels of the overturned wreck Still spinning— I don’t mean he despairs, I mean if he does not He sees in the manner of poetry George Oppen
“The first question at that time in poetry was simply the question of honesty, of sincerity.George Oppen
“We are pressed, pressed on each other, We will be told at once Of anything that happens George Oppen