I thought, 'There are a lot of poets who have the courage to look into the abyss, but there are very few who have the courage to look happiness in the face and write about it,' which is what I wanted to be able to do.

He was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1996. Koch was labeled by some as just a comedic poet. After his service he attended Harvard University where he met future New York School poet John Ashbery.

Kenneth Koch (27 February 1925 – 6 July 2002) was an American poet playwright and professor active from the 1950s until his death at age 77. He was a prominent poet of the New York School of poetry a loose group of poets including Frank O'Hara and John Ashbery that eschewed contemporary introspective poetry in favor of an exuberant cosmopolitan style that drew major inspiration from travel painting and music.