What's madness but nobility of soul At odds with circumstance? The day's on fire! I know the purity of pure despair, My shadow pinned against a sweating wall, That place among the rocks--is it a cave, Or winding path? The edge is what I have........ ....... Dark,dark my light, and darker my desire. My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly, Keeps buzzing at the sill. ~From "The Waking" by Theodore Roethke

Pain wanders through my bones like a lost fire

(I measure time by how a body sways.)

Live in a perpetual great astonishment.

What is madness but nobility of soul at odds with circumstance?

Teach as an old fishing guide takes out a beginner.

All lovers live by longing, and endure: Summon a vision and declare it pure.