A Poet Reflects

“Books swept me away, this way and that, one after the other; I made endless vows according to their lights for I believed them.”

—Annie Dillard

“This is what I believe: That I am I. That my soul is a dark forest. That my known self will never be more than a little clearing in the forest. That gods, strange gods, come forth from the forest into the clearing of my known self, and then go back. That I must have the courage to let them come and go. That I will never let mankind put anything over me, but that I will try always to recognize and submit to the gods in me and the gods in other men and women. There is my creed.”

—D. H. Lawrence

“Your beliefs will be the light by which you see, but they will not be what you see and they will not be a substitute for seeing.”

—Flannery O’Connor