I think that passion if really intense is always destructive if not to the two involved, always to other people.

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

For me a true poem is on the way when I begin to be haunted, when it seems as if I were being asked an inescapable question by an angel with whom I must wrestle to get at the answer.

We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be.

People who cannot feel punish those who do.

I write poems about relationships, love relationships, and I'm not able to do that all the time. I could go two years without writing poems, and then write a dozen. Having a novel to work on, with the intricate puzzle of character and plot to work out, is satisfying for the time there is no poetry.

Flowers and plants are silent presences. They nourish every sense except the ear.