Transcendence or detachment, leaving the body, pure love, lack of jealousy-that's the vision we are given in our culture, generally, when we think of the highest thing. . . . Another way to look at it is that the aim of the person is not to be detached, but to be more attached-to be attached to working; to be attached to making chairs or something that helps everyone; to be attached to beauty; to be attached to music.

I felt a longing to compose a radical or root poem that would speak to what has its back turned to me.

Grief is the doorway to a man's feelings.

I think more and more people are recognizing how much adults and elders are actually needed. That's a gift of the sibling society.

I think that poetry is important when you are shipwrecked, when the ordinary structures that hold you up are gone.

Sociological prose is generally written without images in an exact form for an academic audience.

What does it mean when a man falls in love with a radiant face across the room? It may mean that he has some soul work to do. His soul is the issue. Instead of pursuing the woman and trying to get her alone, away from her husband, he needs to go alone himself, perhaps to a mountain cabin, for three months, write poetry, canoe down a river, and dream. That would save some women a lot of trouble.