“When you’ve got it, there’s no place for it but a poem.” – Ch’an Master Wu-Pen, Zen Master, 807-869

“The courage of the poet is to keep ajar the door that leads into madness.”  – Christopher Morley, American poet, 1890-1957

“Outside of poetry there is no Zen, outside of Zen there is no poetry.” – Ten’in Ryataku, Zen Buddhist monk, 1422-1500

“Poems are just stories… with the boring parts left out.” – W.H. Auden, English poet, 1907–1973

“Fear and faith cannot exist in the same place at the same time. Choose one.” – Kathleen McGowan, The Book of Love

“Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth.” – Ludwig Borne, Deutsche writer, journalist, and satirist, 1786-1837.

“Who cares what I meant? What does it mean to you?” – Joni Mitchell, singer, songwriter, personal icon to me, born 1943.

“I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again. ” -Oscar Wilde, wacky Irish dramatist, novelist and poet, 1854-1900

“The foolish reject what they see, not what they think; the wise reject what they think, not what they see.” - Huang-Po, Chinese master of Zen Buddhism, 720-840

“I want all my friends to come up like weeds, and I want to be a weed myself, spontaneous and unstoppable.” – Roger Deakin, writer and environmentalist, born February 11 1943; died August 19 2006