The universe is made of stories, not atoms. - Muriel Rukeyser

The use of truth is its communication. (p 27)

If there were no poetry on any day in the world, poetry would be invented that day. For there would be an intolerable hunger.

In time of crisis, we summon up our strength. Then, if we are lucky, we are able to call every resource, every forgotten image that can leap to our quickening, every memory that can make us know our power. And this luck is more than it seems to be: it depends on the long preparation of the self to be used. In time of the crises of the spirit, we are aware of all our need, our need for each other and our need for our selves. We call up, with all the strength of summoning we have, our fullness.