I spent several hours yesterday reading and commenting on the poems of an extraordinarily gifted apprentice poet. The pieces are still in early draft form. They have not entirely found their structure or their focus, but the clarity of observation, the depth of emotion, the ear for language and history . . . these are the natural wonders, the heart of real poetry.

"All I know is a door into the dark." 

--Seamus Heaney, "The Forge"