She'd Crack A Joke Sharp As A

I Wish I Wrote More About The World At More Distance From Myself.

If I Wrote In A Sonnet Form, I Would Be Distorting. Or If I Had Some Great New Idea For Line Breaks And I Used It In A Poem, But It's Really Not Right For That Poem, But I Wanted It, That Would Be Distorting.

I Have Never Thought I Could Take It, Not Even For The Children. It Is All I Have Wanted To Do, To Stand Between Them And And Pain. But I Come From A Long Line Of Women Who Put Themselves First.

.. To A Poet, The Human Community Is Like The Community Of Birds To A Bird, Singing To Each Other. Love Is One Of The Reasons We Are Singing To One Another, Love Of Language Itself, Love Of Sound, Love Of Singing Itself, And Love Of The Other Birds.

Poems Come From Ordinary Experiences And Objects, I Think. Out Of Memory - A Dress I Lent My Daughter On Her Way Back To College; A Newspaper Photograph Of War; A Breast Self-exam; The Tooth Fairy; Calvinist Parents Who Beat Up Their Children; A Gesture Of Love; Seeing Oneself Naked Over Age 50 In A Set Of Bright Hotel Bathroom Mirrors.