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.