I do not want a plain box, I want a sarcophagus
With tigery stripes, and a face on it
Round read more

I do not want a plain box, I want a sarcophagus
With tigery stripes, and a face on it
Round as the moon, to stare up.
I want to be looking at them when they come
Picking among the dumb minerals, the roots.
I see them already-the pale, star-distance faces.
Now they are nothing, they are not even babies.
I imagine them without fathers or mothers, like the first gods.
They will wonder if I was important.

Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.

Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.

The guilty catch themselves

The guilty catch themselves

Women complain about premenstrual syndrome, but I think of it as the only time of the month I can be read more

Women complain about premenstrual syndrome, but I think of it as the only time of the month I can be myself.

What a man is ashamed of is always at bottom himself; and he is ashamed of himself at bottom always read more

What a man is ashamed of is always at bottom himself; and he is ashamed of himself at bottom always for being afraid.

Don't tell me peace has broken out.

Don't tell me peace has broken out.

When you were born, you cried and everybody else was happy. The only question that matters is this: When you read more

When you were born, you cried and everybody else was happy. The only question that matters is this: When you die, will YOU be happy when everybody else is crying?

Shame is pride's cloak.

Shame is pride's cloak.

Shame is an ornament of the young; a disgrace of the old.

Shame is an ornament of the young; a disgrace of the old.