The heart’s actionsare neither the sentence nor its reprieve. Salt hay and thistles, above the cold granite. One bird singing back to another because it can’t not.

Poetry’s task is to increase the available stock of reality, R P Blackmur said.

Standing DeerAs the house of a personin age sometimes grows clutteredwith what istoo loved or too heavy to part with,the heart may grow cluttered.And still the house will be emptied,and still the heart.As the thoughts...

TreeIt is foolishto let a young redwoodgrow next to a house.Even in this one lifetime,you will have to choose.That great calm being,this clutter of soup pots and books–Already the first branch-tips brush at the window.Softly,...

How fragile we are, between the few good moments.

When Your Life Looks Back,When your life looks back–As it will, at itself, at you–what will it say?Inch of colored ribbon cut from the spool.Flame curl, blue-consuming the log it flares from.Bay leaf. Oak leaf....

One breath taken completely; one poem, fully written, fully read – in such a moment, anything can happen.

A Blessing for WeddingToday when persimmons ripenToday when fox-kits come out of their den into snowToday when the spotted egg releases its wren songToday when the maple sets down its red leavesToday when windows keep...

as some strings, untouched,sound when no one is speaking.So it was when love slipped inside us.

ChinaWhales followthe whale-roads.Geese, roads of magnetized air.To go great distance,exactitudes matter.Yet how oftenthe heartthat set out for Peruarrives in China,Steering hard.consulting the chartsthe whole journey.

Poetry’s work is the clarification and magnification of being.

Perimeter is not meaning, but it changes meaning,/as wit increases distance, and compassion erodes it.

One way poetry connects is across time. . . . Some echo of a writer’s physical experience comes into us when we read her poem.

The Cloudy VasePast time, I threw the flowers out,washed out the cloudy vase.How easily the old clearnessleapt, like a practiced tiger, back inside it.

Each Moment a White Bull Steps Shining into the World If the gods bring to youa strange and frightening creature,accept the giftas if it were one you had chosen. Say the accustomed prayers,oil the hooves...

The heat of autumn is different from the heat of summer. One ripens apples, the other turns them to cider.”[Autumn]