I think you have to live inside your contradictions and find a way to accept that that's the human condition - to be forced to live in contradiction.

I like to use research to enlarge the poem. And sometimes a rhetorical or syntactical gesture stitches the poem along.

It's extremely important that, as writers, we give a voice to those who don't have voices, including the other animals that we share the planet with and the places that are endangered or being lost.

Once you realize that human actions affect every bit of earth and sky, you realize that the environment isn't just what surrounds us - it's all one whole.

I am a result of what has happened on this planet - how could I find the art to say that? I can't, and yet, I am drawn to it because of the enormity of it. That seems really important.

Bringing science into poetry is one way of acknowledging some of the richest stuff that is in my cultural moment.

I've been accused of darkness by my inner light.

I don't know much about death and the sorriest lesson I've learned is that words, my most trusted guardians against chaos, offer small comfort in the face of anyone's dying.

What keeps me level is the refusal to let the best of human aspirations die in the face of the challenges. I make a moral decision to be hopeful.

We're nature. Our minds are nature. Our desire to make poetry is nature.

As writers, the world is not about individual expression entirely because we are producing works of literature and getting them out into the world.

The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.

something genuine like a mark in a toilet, graced with guts and gutted with grace

Soon, the two of them would leave this spot. . . walk into the house and into a whole changed world. . .

If you smile, even if you’re feeling bad, the action of the muscles will trick your brain into thinking you’re happy

Let the voice be the voice of the voiceless and let it come from the world of rap music to keep the stereotype and the peace at the same time.

Drawing is of the Spirit and color of the Senses.

Stick with your own perception of yourself-living in your own world-and letting your reality, not the reality presented by other people or particular situations, control your performance.

Peace comes from the acceptance of the part of you that can never be at peace.

I can't concern myself with how viewers feel.

The virgin birth has never been a major stumbling block in my struggle with Christianity; it's far less mind boggling than the Power of all Creation stooping so low as to become one of us.