Swan, by Mary Oliver. Poems and prose. Reading from this book is as if visiting a very wise friend. There is wisdom and welcoming kindness on every page.

I was given a stethoscope in a child's 'doctor's bag' at about age six and I loved it! One could hear the heart beating through that plastic toy.

Pigeon-holes are only comfortable for pigeons.

Problems arise in that one has to find a balance between what people need from you and what you need for yourself.

I am grateful that my horizons were not narrowed at the outset.

My arias make me take off as if I were on a trampoline.

It is still more likely that a woman's power would be seen as aggression, and a man's power would be seen as assertion.

There's no anger ever in a spiritual. There's always the dream of a hope of a better day coming. That God understands the troubles that I'm experiencing.

There has never been a time when I was not committed to, involved in, or caring of, the social and political issues of my world.

One needs more than ambition and talent to make a success of anything, really. There must be love and a vocation.

I want to sing more in Spanish. I want to sing the songs of Granados; the songs of Montsalvatge. To do things that truly I've not done before.

The main recipients of injustice in any society are the afflicted the distressed and the troubled one, both in soul and in body.

The Stone Age didn’t end because people ran out of stones. It ended because people kept learning and improving

Personalized filters play to the most compulsive parts of you, creating "compulsive media" to get you to click things more.

We on Earth have just awakened to the great oceans of space and time from which we have emerged.

Everything in the world displeases me: but, above all, my displeasure in everything displeases me.

No matter where you go, you are what you are playa.

When you're trapped in an abusive home environment you can feel completely hopeless and lost. Remember that situations can change with time, and that it won't be this way forever.

Islam is a religion of justice and dignity, and we are taught to never keep silent when facing injustice, discrimination and double standards.

I love horses and I only ask-don't let me know which one we are eating today.

There is no release In a bodkin or disease, Nor can there be a work so great As that which cleans man's dirty slate.