On faith’s battered back calm eyes etch prayers that cool a nation’s hot rage.

In an age when nations and individuals routinely exchange murder for murder, when the healing grace of authentic spirituality is usurped by the divisive politics of religious organizations, and when broken hearts bleed pain in darkness without the relief of compassion, the voice of an exceptional poet producing exceptional work is not something the world can afford to dismiss.

A world without poetry and art would be too much like one without birds or flowers: bearable but a lot less enjoyable.

The fate that condemns or saves one sooner or later often condemns or saves another.

Passion presented with a greater challenge achieves a greater goal.

True lovers earn their genius in schools of blood, prophecy and dust.

Although himself frequently a target of guerrilla decontextualization, a major part of the meaning of Michael Jackson's life was to help balance the accumulation of horrors with something closer to love in its most empowering and healing sense.