Every morning I walk like this around the pond, thinking: if the doors of my heart ever close, I am as good as dead.

When it's over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

... the natural world is the old river that runs through everything, and I think poets will forever fish along its shores.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention.

Because of the dog's joyfulness, our own is increased. It is no small gift. It is not the least reason why we should honor as well as love the dog of our own life, and the dog down the street, and all the dogs not yet born. What would the world be like without music or rivers or the green and tender grass? What would this world be like without dogs?

Poetry isn't a profession, it's a way of life. It's an empty basket; you put your life into it and make something out of that.

It's morning, and again I am that lucky person who is in it.