People who work hard often work too hard. ... May we learn to honor the hammock, the siesta, the nap and the pause in all its forms.

In order to be able to live at all in America I must be unafraid to live anywhere in it, and I must be able to live in the fashion and with whom I choose.

To acknowledge our ancestors means we are aware that we did not make ourselves, that the line stretches all the way back, perhaps to God; or to Gods. We remember them because it is an easy thing to forget: that we are not the first to suffer, rebel, fight, love and die. The grace with which we embrace life, in spite of the pain, the sorrow, is always a measure of what has gone before.

I had assumed that the Earth, the spirit of the Earth, noticed exceptions-those who wantonly damage it and those who do not. But the Earth is wise. It has given itself into the keeping of all, and all are therefore accountable.

Writing poems is my way of celebrating with the world that I have not committed suicide the evening before.

Nature has created us with the capacity to know God, to experience God.

You must run around like a crazy person or walk sedately honoring the dead.