A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.

Poetry is play. I'd even rather have you think of it as a sport. For instance, like football.

Democracy is the best chance for the best people.

If one by one we counted people out For the least sin, it wouldn't take us long To get so we had no one left to live with. For to be social is to be forgiving.

Education doesn't change life much. It just lifts trouble to a higher plane of regard.

You don't have to deserve your mother's love. You have to deserve your father's.

In A Glass of Cider It seemed I was a mite of sediment That waited for the bottom to ferment So I could catch a bubble in ascent. I rode up on one till the bubble burst, And when that left me to sink back reversed I was no worse off than I was at first. I'd catch another bubble if I waited. The thing was to get now and then elated.