Poets are immersed in process, and I mean process not as an amorphous blur but as a discipline. The hard work of writing has taught me that in matters of the heart, such as writing, or faith, there is no right or wrong way to do it, but only the way of your life. Just paying attention will teach you what bears fruit and what doesn't. But it will be necessary to revise--to doodle, scratch out, erase, even make a mess of things--in order to make it come out right.

To be an American is to move on, as if we could outrun change. To attach oneself to place is to surrender to it, and suffer with it.

I wonder if children don't begin to reject both poetry and religion for similar reasons, because the way both are taught takes the life out of them.

Not money, or success, or position or travel or love makes happiness,--service is the secret.

It's all so beautiful . . . the spring . . . and books and music and fires. . . . Why aren't they enough?

Over and over again mediocrity is promoted because real worth isn't to be found.

But in order to have an adult faith, most of us have to outgrow and unlearn much of what we were taught about religion.