Prayer as focus is not a way of limiting what can be seen; it is a habit of attention brought to bear on all that is.

You can’t put much on paper before you betray your secret self, try as you will to keep things civil.

The materials of true poetry are always humble, absolutely idiosyncratic, the autobiographical tatters that, in gifted hands, are made into the memoir that fits us all.

These days it seems the lyric impulse, so seemingly fragile, comes in for a lot of abuse-or simply a lot of mistrust. What's it for, anyway, in this hard-edged, worried world? Into this cultural uncertainty Gregory Orr's spirited meditation on the surprisingly tensile strength of poetry in the face of profound suffering and grief presents a welcome fresh view of the ancient human instinct to cry out and to praise.

poetry is the sung voice of accurate perception.

The world is full of mystery but it must not be choked with secrets: we must talk to one another.

It's always a thrilling risk to say exactly what you mean, to express exactly what you see.