Being thankful helps you to be present.People commit errors because they are not present.I would encourage women and men to be present - you'll avoid falling into certain pits.For instance, if you know that a person has just lost his wife or her husband or lover, it's unlikely that you will say something that will hurt that person's feelings if you're truly paying attention. You'll make a sweeter life for yourself and for those around you if you are present.

I like to go back and read poems that I wrote fifty years ago, twenty years ago, and sometimes they surprise me - I didn't know I knew that then. Or maybe I didn't know it then, and I know more now.

I believe we are still so innocent. The species are still so innocent that a person who is apt to be murdered believes that the murderer, just before he puts the final wrench on his throat, will have enough compassion to give him one sweet cup of water.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear, I rise. Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear, I rise.

The most difficult thing in the world, it seems to me, is to realize that I am a child of God; to keep that in my mind all the time.

Look heavenward and speak the word aloud. Peace. We look at our world and speak the word aloud. Peace.

We have it in us to be splendid.