I Have Spent Many Years Trying To

Be Careful How Quickly You Give Away Your Fire.

I Got About Half The Time I Wanted To Write Poetry. I Got About Half The Time I Needed To Be A Father. So There Is Something In Adulthood That Has To Do With Accepting The Half Of Things, Allowing A Renunciation Of The Other Half, Accepting Half A Basket Instead Of A Full Basket.

As A Parent You Have To Do Some Renunciation.

When Anyone Seriously Pursues An Art - Painting, Poetry, Sculpture, Composing - Over Twenty Or Thirty Years, The Sustained Discipline Carries The Artist Down To The Countryside Of Grief, And That Descent, Resisted So Long Proves Invigorating. . . . As I've Gotten Older, I Find I Am Able To Be Nourished More By Sorrow And To Distinguish It From Depression.

Vertical Attention Is Not The Same As, And Doesn't Evolve From Nor Imply, Hierarchy. We Could Say That Hierarchy Is Associated With Power, And Vertical Attention With Longing For The Divine Feminine, For The Divine Masculine, For What The Sufis Call 'wine.'