The poem is not, as someone put it, deflective of entry. But the real question is, ‘What happens to the reader once he or she gets inside the poem?’ That’s the real question for me, is getting the reader into the poem and then taking the reader somewhere, because I think of poetry as a kind of form of travel writing.
He
The battle was first waged over the right of the Negro to be classed as a human being with a soul; later, as to whether he had sufficient intellect to master even the rudiments of learning; and today it is being fought out over his social recognition.
The best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way.
Sri Yukteswar showed no special consideration to those who happened to be powerful or accomplished; neither did he slight others for their poverty or illiteracy. He would listen respectfully to words of truth from a child, and openly ignore a conceited pundit.
When my father died, those years when he was working on the Hubble came back to me, and it seemed fitting to imagine him as having somehow merged with the large mystery that the universe represents.
President Obama can talk about having no grand schemes and making no big gains, but the reality is he can’t get anything of significance through Congress.
Only he can take great resolves who has indomitable faith in God and has fear of God.
This man, although he appeared so humble and embarrassed in his air and manners, and passed so unheeded, had inspired me with such a feeling of horror by the unearthly paleness of his countenance, from which I could not avert my eyes, that I was unable longer to endure it.
Obama came in really wanting to change things, but he hit a wall of corporate money, oil and coal money: when he tried to pass the Cap and Trade system of pharmaceutical money, when he tried to pass the Obamacare – which, of course, then got watered down into a much less effective, much less economical, program.
The poet enjoys the incomparable privilege of being able to be himself and others, as he wishes.