Blood and Sweat and Anguish

"My poems were written in blood and sweat and anguish. How many of you can understand that? I have spent the torments of a life working free of the libidinous muck of worm and bat and lust to a ringing vision of God. How can anyone who has lived safely, suffered less, know this terror or this joy? It's too hard, too much to ask. So all right. If you can't love my poems, love me." --Theodore Roethke