Every poem I write falls short in some important way. But I go on trying to write the one that won’t.

You’ve traveled this far on the back of every mistake.

Good writing works from a simple premise: your experience is not yours alone, but in some sense a metaphor for everyone's.

That's how it is sometimes--God comes to your window, all bright light and black wings, and you're just too tired to open it.

A poem is like a child; at some point we have to let it go and trust that it will make its own way in the world.

Every good poem asks a question, and every good poet asks every question.

I have always loved too much, or not enough.

We continue to speak, if only in whispers, to something inside us that longs to be named.

Who you are contributes to your poetry in a number of important ways, but you shouldn't identify with your poems so closely that when they are cut, you're the one that bleeds.

Maybe it's what we don't say/that saves us.

We're all writing out of a wound, and that's where our song comes from. The wound is singing. We're singing back to those who've been wounded.

When face with any problem, do not panic, but pray. You find the peace to overcome pain.

I preach darkness. I don't inspire hope—only shadows. It's up to you to find the light in my words.

The things that you consistently think of yourself and your abilities will always overwrite the things that people say about you.

I'm a father of four so whenever I'm not working my kids have their different sports, or plays, or school performances, so I don't do a whole lot of other stuff besides being a dad.

Where is the peace that should with thee abide O Earth?

What have you done for YOURSELF this year to create a better life?

Anything that prevents you from taking an action or actions that might reasonably dispel legitimate anxieties. Fear is what paralyzes you.

If you are kind to an enemy, you cannot hate him.

So Carol, you're a housewife and mother. And have you got any children?

I remember when I first started being in magazines, I had pretty thin skin. I was this nerd that read books and stayed home and didn't go out.