Poems Give You The Lives Of Others

Five Tender Apricots In A Blue Bowl, A Brief And Exact Promise Of Things To Come.

Splendid To Arrive Alone In A Foreign Country And Feel The Assault Of Difference. Here They Are All Along, Busy With Living; They Don't Talk Or Look Like Me. The Rhythm Of Their Day Is Entirely Different; I Am Foreign.

Memory Is, Of Course, A Trickster.

The Italians Have Their Priorities Right: They're Driven, They Do Their Work, But They Really Enjoy The Day-to-day And They Don't Put Off The Enjoyment Of The Everyday For Some Future Goal.

I Got The Idea That To Write Books Would Be The Best Way To Spend A Life. I Never Thought Of Anything Else That Seemed Like Half As Much Fun, Although In My Next Life I Would Like To Be An Architect, Too, So I Can Have An Easier Time Restoring Houses.