deeper sense of reality

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Ocean of Words

We Have a Responsibility

"We know in our deep and private places that we have a responsibility to take on things that draw our attention and to turn them into these mysterious objects—poems and stories—that illuminate, that offer an objection to the status quo, that warn and empower."

Storytelling Is How We're Moved

"The reason we tell stories, to judge from what I have seen among traditional people, is to keep each other from being afraid.  We tell stories and write poems, historically, to keep awe and aspiration and comprehension and the other components of hopeful lives bright in each other's hearts.  Storytelling is how we're moved to take care of each other when we recognize how extremely thin the veneer of civilization we cherish is, and how very hard it is to keep that veneer from shredding in the wind."

negotiate the irrational

"For me, one of poetry's jobs is to negotiate the irrational and the incomprehensible.  Not to reconcile with those things."