I Am My Mother's Daughter,... I Am

One Of The Best Gifts You Can Give A Poet Is To Present Them With Field Guides - To Rocks, To Stars, To Birds, To Wildflowers, To Trees And Bushes, To Butterflies, To Reptiles And Amphibians. Because When You Look At Anything Long Enough To Be Able To Identify It, You See Far More Clearly And You Make A Tiny Beginning At Understanding The Life, The Place, The History Of That Bird Or Rock Or Mammal.

I Wrote To Make Sense Out Of All The Contradictions I Experienced And To Deal With The Pain And Loss I Was Undergoing.

When I Work I Am Pure As An Angel Tiger And Clear Is My Eye And Hot My Brain And Silent All The Whining Grunting Piglets Of The Appetites.

The People I Love The Best, Jump Into Work Head First Without Dallying In The Shallows.

Purple As Tulips In May, Mauve Into Lush Velvet, Purple As The Stain Blackberries Leave On The Lips, On The Hands, The Purple Of Ripe Grapes Sunlit And Warm As Flesh.