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

Look for verbs of muscle, adjectives of exactitude.

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.

The three ingredients of poetry: the mystery of the universe, spiritual curiosity, the energy of language.

Because of the dog’s joyfulness, our own is increased. It is no small gift.

You must not ever stop being whimsical. And you must not, ever, give anyone else the responsibility for your life.

But the owls themselves are not hard to find, silent and on the wing, with their ear tufts flat against their heads as they fly and their huge wings alternately gliding and flapping as they maneuver through the trees. Athena's owl of wisdom and Merlin's companion, Archimedes, were screech owls surely, not this bird with the glassy gaze, restless on the bough, nothing but blood on its mind.