“The work of the eyes is done. Go now and do the heart-work on the images imprisoned within you.”

“And if out of this turning-within, out of this immersion in your own world, poems come, then you will not think of asking anyone whether they are good or not. Nor will you try to interest magazines in these works: for you will see them as your dear natural possession, a piece of your life, a voice from it. A work of art is good if it has arisen out of necessity. That is the only way one can judge it.”

“So don't be frightened, dear friend, if a sadness confronts you larger than any you have ever known, casting its shadow over all you do. You must think that something is happening within you, and remember that life has not forgotten you; it holds you in its hand and will not let you fall. Why would you want to exclude from your life any uneasiness, any pain, any depression, since you don't know what work they are accomplishing within you?”

“For somewhere reigns an old hostility / between living one's Life and doing one's Work.”

“We’re involved with flower, fruit, grapevine.They speak more than the language of the year.Out of the darkness a blaze of colors appears,and one perhaps that has the jealous shineOf the dead, those who strengthen the earth.What do we know of the part they assume?It’s long been their habit to marrow the loamwith their own free marrow through and through. Now the one question: Is it done gladly?The work of sullen slaves, does this fruitthrust up, clenched, toward us, its masters?Sleeping with roots, granting us only out of their surplus this hybrid made of mutestrength and kisses — are they the masters?”

“Extinguish my eyes, I'll go on seeing you.Seal my ears, I'll go on hearing you.And without feet I can make my way to you,without a mouth I can swear your name.Break off my arms, I'll take hold of youwith my heart as with a hand.Stop my heart, and my brain will start to beat.And if you consume my brain with fire,I'll feel you burn in every drop of my blood.”

“There is time only to work slowlyThere is no time not to love”