“This kiss is zeroes and ones jumbledand tossed into a pneumatic system,unscrambled at the end and scrawledonto a tape recorder slowly rollingat the side of your bed,then slapping back, reverbedoff the ringer, a tinny phantomof the smooch like a smack onan aluminum can, up the same veins through the belly of the same satelliteand softly to the side of my head;”

“It's tragic that extremists co-opt the notion of God, and that hipsters and artists reject spirituality out of hand. I don't have a fixed idea of God. But I feel that it's us - the messed-up, the half-crazy, the burning, the questing - that need God, a lot more than the goody-two-shoes do.”

“A night spent spooning with your girlfriend isn't nearly so exciting when your uncle is curled up against your other side.”

“Everyday I rewrite her name across my ribcage so that those who wish to break my heart will know who to answer to later She has no idea that I’ve taught my tongue to make pennies, and every time our mouths are to meet I will slip coins to the back of her throat and make wishes I wish that someday my head on her belly might be like home like doubt to doubt resuscitation because time is supposed to mean more than skin She doesn’t know that I have taught my arms to close around her clocks so they can withstand the fallout from her AutumnShe is so explosive, volcanoes watch her and learn terrorists want to strap her to their chests because she is a cause worth dying for Maybe someday time will teach me to pick up her pieces put her back together and remind her to click her heels but she doesn’t need a wizard to tell her that I was here all alongLady let us catch the next tornado home let us plant cantaloupe trees in our backyard then maybe together we will realize that we don’t like cantaloupe and they don’t grow on trees we can laugh about it then we can plant things we’ve never heard ofI’ve never heard of a woman who can make flawed look so beautiful the way you doThe word smitten is to how I feel about you what a kiss is to romance so maybe my lips to yours could be the penance to this confession because I am the only one preaching your defunct religion sitting alone at your altar, praising you out of faithI cannot do this hard-knock life alone You are all the softness a rock dreams of being the mistakes the rain makes at picnics when Mother Nature bears witness in much better placesSo yes I will gladly take on your ocean just to swim beneath you so I can kiss the bends of your knees in appreciation for the work they do keeping your head above water”

“Two people may suffer the same disappointment, one might be saddened, the other understanding.Two people may receive the same insult, one might be hurt, and the other compassionate.Two people may have the same disagreement, one might be angered, the other feel love.How you react to circumstances, people and things, IS A CHOICE, YOUR CHOICE... based on YOUR use of compassion, understanding and love.”

“Love built on pain-the kind that lasts: whatever you love can be taken away from us at any moment but the loss of what we love belongs to us forever.”

“And there's a darker side to Peckham, too, once you get in deep: a side I like a lot more, because I identify with the past and prefer even worm-eaten wood to wipe-clean plastic.”