Getting over what you did to me is not why I get out of bed anymore.

If a teacher told me to revise, I thought that meant my writing was a broken-down car that needed to go to the repair shop. I felt insulted. I didn't realize the teacher was saying, 'Make it shine. It's worth it.' Now I see revision as a beautiful word of hope. It's a new vision of something. It means you don't have to be perfect the first time. What a relief!

Teaching and writing are separate, but serve/feed one another in so many ways. Writing travels the road inward, teaching, the road out - helping OTHERS move inward - it is an honor to be with others in the spirit of writing and encouragement.

Poetry calls us to pause. There is so much we overlook, while the abundance around us continues to shimmer, on its own.

I love the solitude of reading. I love the deep dive into someone else's story, the delicious ache of a last page.

only kindness that raises its head from the crowd of the world to say it is I you have been looking for, and then goes with you everywhere like a shadow or a friend.

Sometimes there’s no one to listen to what you really might like to say at a certain moment. The paper always listens.