My friends never talk to me about my poetry because theyre embarrassed that I write it or theyre embarrassed by what I write about which are not such extraordinarily terrifying things, but they are the state of human existence. – Peter Davison
I have experienced healing through other writers poetry, but theres no way I can sit down to write in the hope a poem will have healing potential. If I do, Ill write a bad poem. – Marilyn Hacker
The first fact about the celebration of birthdays is that it is a good way of affirming defiantly, and even flamboyantly, that it is a good thing to be alive. – G.K. Chesterton, “Our Birthday,” 1935
No greater thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen. – Epictetus