My mother always said I must be part Mongolian because of my lotus-pale complexion and squid-ink black hair.

Happiness doesn't require laughter, only well-being and a sense that the world is breaking someone else's heart, not mine.

...for most people in the [Jewish] Ghetto [of Warsaw] nature lived only in memory -- no parks, birds, or greenery existed in the Ghetto -- and they suffered the loss of nature like a phantom-limb pain, an amputation that scrambled the body's rhythms, starved the senses, and made basic ideas about the world impossible for children to fathom.

A poem records emotions and moods that lie beyond normal language, that can only be patched together and hinted at metaphorically.

For better or worse, zoos are how most people come to know big or exotic animals. Few will ever see wild penguins sledding downhill to sea on their bellies, giant pandas holding bamboo lollipops in China or tree porcupines in the Canadian Rockies, balled up like giant pine cones.

Not much is known about alligators. They don't train well. And they're unwieldy and rowdy to work with in laboratories.

As people flock to urban centers where ground space is limited, cities with green walls and roofs and skyscraper farms offer improved health and well-being, renewable resources, reliable food supply, and relief to the environment.