One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being.

over and over again I am struck by the wordiness of modern poetry, as if language had replaced experience and must be more and more extreme, intricate and in a way divorced from life itself. It seems as if what we all need is a great purification - but how will that come about?

When we admit our vulnerability, we include others. If we deny it, we shut them out.

Words are more powerful than perhaps anyone suspects, and once deeply engraved in a child's mind, they are not easily eradicated.

The garden is growth and change and that means loss as well as constant new treasures to make up for a few disasters.

Growing old is, of all things we experience, that which takes the most courage, and at a time when we have the least resources, especially with which to meet frustration.

Fighting dragons is my holy joy.