From the recesses of your heart comes a tumultuous beat. I tom-tom messages through your heart. Your heartbeat surges full-circle through your body and resounds to the world. Think of all the hearts beating. They beat a tune and stir the universe. Do you think that such an avalanche of heartbeats cannot be heard?

If you could but treat your life as a poem, how wonderful life would be! A poem is what it is. Poems affect you. And with each poem you read, your grasp of life grows. Something has been said, and you have heard it.

Poetry names things for you, so when you read a poem, your heart says: "Oh, yes. This is how it is. This is what I would have said if I had thought of it. The poet has said it for me. He has said it in his own words, but his words are also mine. He is like the diviner of my sense of life on earth."