But there are moments, walking, when I catch a glimpse of myself in the window glass, say, the window of the corner video store, and I'm gripped by a cherishing so deep for my own blowing hair, chapped face, and unbuttoned coat that I'm speechless: I am living. I remember you.

Poetry is telling something to someone.

Poetry holds the knowledge that we are alive and that we know we're going to die.

Each of us suffers with envy/for the forgiven.

Every poem holds the unspeakable inside it. The unsayable... The thing that you can't really say because it's too complicated. It's too complex for us. Every poem has that silence deep in the center of it.

A traitor commits his crime but once. The rest/is retribution.

I am living. I remember you.