On the beach, at dawn: four small stones clearly hugging each other. How many kinds of love might there be in the world, and many formations might they make and who am I ever to imagine I could know such a marvelous business? When the sun broke it poured willingly its light over the stones…

I thought the earth remembered me, she took me back so tenderly, arranging her dark skirts, her pockets full of lichens and seeds. I slept as never before, a stone on the riverbed, nothing between me and the white fire of the stars but my thoughts, and floated light as moths among the branches of…

The crows see me. They stretch their glossy necks In the tallest branches Of green trees. I am Possibly dangerous, I am Entering the kingdom. The dream of my life Is to lie down by a slow river And stare at the light in the trees– To learn something by being nothing A little while…

This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready to break my heart as the sun rises, as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers and they open — pools of lace, white and pink — and all day the black ants climb over them, boring their deep and mysterious holes…

What do you say, Percy? I am thinking of sitting out on the sand to watch the moon rise. It’s full tonight.  So we go and the moon rises, so beautiful it makes me shudder, makes me think about time and space, makes me take measure of myself: one iota pondering heaven. Thus we sit, myself…

Oh do you have time to linger for just a little while out of your busy and significant day for the goldfinches that have gathered in a field of thistles for a musical battle, to see who can sing the highest note, or the lowest, or the most expressive of mirth, or the most tender?…