Being Human

Just between us,
I think it's time for us to recognize
The differences we sometimes fear to show.

Perspective

Man must rise above the Earth--to the top of the atmosphere and beyond--for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives.

Meaning

Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.

And then Lives

There is no shortage of good days.

Summer, a Party, Friends

For this impossible second,

that is ending even as we begin it, the world
becomes complete: our joy like a dragonfly poised
on a leaf, the moist touch of a glass against our lips,
a barn swallow that twists and flits, a bright
flung thing caught in the vanishing light.

Always the Chance for Growth

I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him.

Breathe and Let Go.

And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.

Limiting the Answer

I never learned the answer, nor did the answer matter, for one of the eerie and liberating aspects of broadcast discourse is that nothing one says will alter in the slightest either the form or the length of the conversation.

A Question to an Author

Where are we heading, they asked in all the television and radio studios.

Stop and Listen

Revelations challenge you to believe in the ideas you receive rather than thinking you made them up.

People Say He's Crazy

Well they give me all kinds of warnings to save me from ruin,
When I say that I'm o.k. they look at me kind of strange,
Surely you're not happy now you no longer play the game?

Being a Fool?

Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.

Age-old Truth

Time makes more converts than reason.

In a Purpose

Other work I have set for myself to do, to meet people and The States face to face, to confront them with an American rude tongue; but the work of my life is making poems.

Looking to Others

The young man reveres men of genius, because, to speak truly, they are more himself than he is.

It Can Happen

And thus there can be little doubt that in the Union of Poetry with Music in its popular sense, we shall find the widest field for the Poetic development.

Always the Question

Who will speak these days,
if not I,
if not you?

Words Are the Air

The universe is made of stories,
not of atoms.

The Knack of Flying

If, however, you are lucky enough to have your attention momentarily distracted at the crucial moment by, say, a gorgeous pair of legs (tentacles, pseudopodia, according to phyllum and/or personal inclination) or a bomb going off in your vicinity, or by suddently spotting an extremely rare species of beetle crawling along a nearby twig, then in your astonishment you will miss the ground completely and remain bobbing just a few inches above it in what might seem to be a slightly foolish manner.

Manipulate into Patriotism

But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.

Finding Your Mark

The thing is to stalk your calling in a certain skilled and supple way, to locate the most tender and live spot and plug into that pulse.

At the Sudden Moment

Weasel! I'd never seen one wild before.

Turning Maybe

One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do.

Not Buffeted by Daily Whims

I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.

Unlock

So oftentimes it happens
That we live our lives in chains
And we never even know we have the key

Where You Lead

Everything in your life comes from a thought or feeling you have, for your inner world of thoughts and feelings creates your outer world of events, objects, and relationships.

The Zen Master Asks

I want to know if your umbrella is on the right or left side of the clogs.

Beating Lady Luck

DiMaggio's remarkable achievement--its uniqueness, in the unvarnished literal sense of that word--lies in whatever he did to extend his success well beyond the reasonable expectations of random models that have governed every other streak or slump in the history of baseball.

In an Animal's Mind

There is only the everlasting present of a single generation--its trails in the forest, its hidden pathways of the air and in the sea.

Cowboy Thoreau

Many of his shots ricochet and nick him on the rebound, and throughout th melee there is a horrendous cloud of inconsistencies and contradictions, and when the shooting dies down and the air clears, one is impressed chiefly by the courage of the rider and by how splendid it was that somebody should have ridden in there and raised all that ruckus.

Fact or Fiction

It is remarkable how long men will believe in the bottomlessness of a pond without taking the trouble to sound it.

Our Choice

I may presently change, not only by chance, but also by intention.

Searching and Seeing

And then one Sunday afternoon I wandered out along the Desplaines river
And I saw a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with their women and children and a keg of beer and an accordian.

And if?

Sir, if a man has experienced the inexpressible, he is under no obligation to attempt to express it.

In a Moment

"I will answer the second question first," he said, "--but bless me! this is a splendid place for smoke rings!"

The Heart of A Tale

Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave.

Mutual Need

Without creative personalities able to think and judge independently, the upward development of society is as unthinkable as the development of the individual personality without the nourishing soil of the community.

In Unexpected Places

Imagination governs the world.

An Author's Hope

Finally, to the real people who lived this tale, I trust we have done them, their heirs, and their spirits justice.

From Your Perspective

If you're a surfer, a trucker, a high school dropout, or an eccentric retiree, then you've got an edge already.

Engage

All the valley is dancing
Together under the sun,
And the heart of him who joins us not
Is turned to dust, to dust.

Horizons

The trek from the snow plains of Liska to the summit of the Ice Crystal Pyramids of Sastantua is long and grueling, even with jet skis and a team of Syneca Snowhounds, but the view from the top, a view which takes in the Stin Glacier Fields, the shimmering Prism Mountains and the far ethereal dancing icelights, is one which first freezes the mind and then slowly releases it to hitherto unexperienced horizons of beauty, and Trillian, for one, felt that she could do with a bit of having her mind slowly released to hitherto unexperienced horizons of beauty.

Is and Can Be

Only our fear-driven egos use judgments to protect us--protection that ironically prevents us from self-realization.

Onto the Gran Via

"Isn't it pretty to think so?"

Perception and Reality

The world as you see it right here, right now, is reality, regardless of what the scientists say it might be.