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.

Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.

After a cruel childhood, one must reinvent oneself. Then reimagine the world.

So this is how you swim inward. So this is how you flow outwards. So this is how you pray.

Rhythm is one of the most powerful of pleasures, and when we feel a pleasurable rhythm we hope it will continue. When it does, it grows sweeter.

And over one more set of hills, along the sea, the last roses have opened their factories of sweetness and are giving it back to the world. If I had another life I would want to spend it all on some unstinting happiness.

The sea is the most beautiful face in our universe.