I find that when I have any appointment, even an afternoon one, it changes the whole quality of time. I feel overcharged. There is no space for what wells up from the subconscious; those dreams and images live in deep still water and simply submerge when the day gets scattered.

when I am working I immediately feel hopeful.

Read between the lines.Then meet me in the silence if you can.

each new poem is partly propelled by the formal energies of all the poems that have preceded it in the history of literature.

I think of the trees and how simply they let go, let fall the riches of a season, how without grief (it seems) they can let go and go deep into their roots for renewal and sleep.... Imitate the trees. Learn to lose in order to recover, and remember that nothing stays the same for long, not even pain, psychic pain. Sit it out. Let it all pass. Let it go.

I am not ready to die, / But I am learning to trust death / As I have trusted life.

I simply adore being alone - I find it a consuming thirst - and when that thirst is slaked, then I am happy.