Time out of Mind (1999)

"I've written little because there is so much not to be said. I like Charles Wright's line: 'There is so little to say and so much time to say it in.'

...

The poet who read yesterday at Berkeley said, 'I don't like great poetry. It's too finished. It makes me feel it doesn't need me.' Ridiculous, I thought, but then thought, No; the idea that great poetry doesn't need her is very good. It doesn't need anybody, and whether or not you like it is irrelevant."

June 10, '80, The Diaries of Leonard Michaels 1961-1995.