Messages ...Dogs talk to us with their bodies and accept our answers in words. Holes ask for rain; the stunted corpse of an elm is revealed as a sign… - Lisel Mueller

A Holy Madness
To say thou to the sun
and call the wind brother;
to be humble before a grain of sand
and speak familiarly to the sea;
to preach to the birds in earnest
...o holy love, sweet lunacy,
which of us, seeing a child
exhorting a deaf robin,
does not bless that child
for the paradise in his head?
Be praised, my Lord, for Francis,
brother to lilies...

Why I Need the Birds
...By the time I arrive at evening,
...they are turning
into the dreamwork of trees;
and all of us...
myself and the purple finches,
and rusty blackbirds,
the ruby cardinals,
the white-throated sparrows
with their liquid voices—
ride the dark curve of the earth
toward daylight, which they announce
from their high lookouts
before dawn has quite broken...

The Laughter of Women
...Prisoners in underground cells
imagine that they see daylight
when they remember the laughter of women
...What language it is ...
Long before law and scripture
...we understood freedom.