Other families bought automobiles; we had a horse-headed hitching post in front of our house and drove horses.

For my Oxford degree, I had to translate French and German philosophy (as it turned out, Descartes and Kant) at sight without a dictionary. That meant Germany for my first summer vacation, to learn the thorny language on my own.

Corncobs are the greatest fire-making tinder.

A barn with cattle and horses is the place to begin Christmas; after all, that's where the original event happened, and that same smell was the first air that the Christ Child breathed.

When your first marriage goes into tragedy, you become very battle-scarred... I even thought of suicide. Luckily, I had known some happy marriages.

Other families bought automobiles; we had a horse-headed hitching post in front of our house and drove horses.

All poetry is an ordered voice, one which tries to tell you about a vision in the un-visionary language of farm, city, and love.