A thing may fail as a poem because it tries to do what a poem cannot do: it tries to become a treatise on cosmic truth... We can best be exact about the cosmic things - God and truth, beauty, eternity and love - by not talking directly about them.

I put myself in a spiritual and physical place where I've learned from experience the synapses are likely to fire and the juices are likely to flow, and simply begin to write.

I don't like poetry that doesn't give me a sense of ritual, but I don't like poetry that doesn't sound like people talking to each other. I try to do both at once.

Ritual is important to us as human beings. It ties us to our traditions and our histories.

To God everything is beautiful, good, and just; humans, however, think some things are unjust and others just.

A great city, whose image dwells in the memory of man, is the type of some great idea. Rome represents conquest; Faith hovers over the towers of Jerusalem; and Athens embodies the pre-eminent quality of the antique world, Art.

The people who misuse the Sabbath lose the blessings of spiritual food and growth promised to those who keep this commandment.

There was a time when I was in my sins and I was God's enemy, but now I have been purchased in Christ, and God is for me. He is not going to do anything or command anything that is not ultimately for my good and for His glory.