I’m only able to write poetry, for the most part, when I have a Muse, a woman who focuses the world for me.

all great people are humble because great people have great work and are humbled by the largeness of their dreams.

Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.

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

What we have not has made us what we are. / ... / What we are not drives us to consummation.

I am realizing once and for all the difference as far as I am concerned of women and men and the necessity for both. With a man, however tender he is, one is feeding him - one is always and eternally understanding, mothering, supplying him with faith in himself (not in you).

One does not "find oneself" by pursuing one's self, but on the contrary by pursuing something else and learning through discipline or routine. . . who one is and wants to be.