Still, what I want in my life
is to be willing
to be dazzled—
to cast aside the weight of facts

and maybe even
to float a little
above this difficult world.

Poetry is a life-cherishing force. For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry.

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

There are a hundred paths through the world that are easier than loving. But, who wants easier?

the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own

I want to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,
as though I had wings.