Our Children no longer learn how to read the great book of Nature from their own direct experience, or how to interact creatively with the seasonal transformations of the planet. They seldom learn where their water come from or where it goes. We no longer coordinate our human celebration with the great liturgy of the heavens.

Our land passes in and out of our bodies just as our bodies pass in and out of our land

Eating is an agricultural act. Eating ends the annual drama of the food economy that begins with planting and birth. Most eaters, however, are no longer aware that this is true. They think of food as an agricultural product, perhaps, but they do not think of themselves as participants in agriculture. They think of themselves as 'consumers.'

To mind being disliked by a woman you don’t desire and are not married to is yet another serious failure of common sense.

The form of a poem is invisible. A poem is not an "object." This is hard to accept in a mechanical age.

When you are new at sheep-raising and your ewe has a lamb, your impulse is to stay there and help it nurse and see to it and all. After a while you know that the best thing you can do is walk out of the barn.

A sustainable agriculture is one which depletes neither the people nor the land.