Rúfus published his first poems in magazines Prameň (Stream), Nový rod (New lineage), Mladá tvorba (Production of young ones) and Borba in the 1940s and debuted with his first collection, Až dozrieme ("When We Grow Mature") in 1956.
In a book of essays, Človek, čas a tvorba ("Human, Time and Creation"), he examined questions of poetry and its relation to truth, homeland and time [REF].