IN OUR CELLSThey keep us in our cellsFor a long time...And, if we get out, We lug them with us on our shoulders, Like a porter with a chest of goods.

When will the deathOf Death ever come?from "The Siege

Let them shoot us in the head, My blood will grow rootsand will blossom.

TIMETimeAnd how it slips through my fingersWithout putting its ring on them, And I remain simply its lover

It rainsAnd rainsAnd rains.But there is a sky above the rain, Nothing can rot the sky.Earth has turned to mud. What of it?The heart of the planet is made of fire, of ardent sun.(from "A Rainy Day")

Innocent droplets of rainMake almost all events Quite natural.(from "A Rainy Day")

ABYSSOur country livesAmong the deadAnd dies among the livingSometimes.

Only with a leafcan I talk of the forest,

Handcuffs weigh much more than gravestones.(from "Gratitude")

Truth is, we don’t get grace. But it sure can get us.

A man in debt is so far a slave.

Truth is dissent, where all power resides in the Big Lie.

As Trevor Noah recently quipped, the US appears ready to crown its first African dictator: Donald Trump.

The division of labor among nations is that some specialize in winning and others in losing.

Life is what matters, life alone - the continuous, eternal process of discovering life - and not the discovery itself.

We sing in a church, why can we not dance there?

I do want to give out a positive message and be successful.

Updike worked this way, and I just kinda borrowed it from him. So the memoir will be relief from novel writing for a moment.

Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.