And now you'll be telling stories of my coming back and they won't be false, and they won't be true but they'll be real

The end of life has its own nature, also worth our attention. I don't say this without reckoning in the sorrow, the worry, the many diminishments. But surely it is then that a person's character shines or glooms.

Still, what I want in my life is to be willing to be dazzled-to cast aside the weight of facts and maybe even to float a little above this difficult world. I want to believe I am looking into the white fire of a great mystery. I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing-that the light is everything-that it is more than the sum of each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do.

If you have ever gone into the woods with me, I must love you very much.

I worked privately, and sometimes I feel that might be better for poets than the kind of social workshop gathering. My school was the great poets: I read, and I read, and I read.

I think one thing is that prayer has become more useful, interesting, fruitful, and... almost involuntary in my life.

My first two books are out of print and, okay, they can sleep there comfortably. It's early work, derivative work.