The materials for poetry are all about you in profusion.

Take your materials from what is around you - if you see a dandelion, write about that; if it's misty, write about the mist. The materials for poetry are all about you in profusion.

A pear tree is blooming, by a collapsed house, on an old battlefield.

Always someone resting there - a lone rock in the summer field

Having examined three thousand haiku poems - two persimmons.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Most people think that shadows follow, precede or surround beings or objects. The truth is that they also surround words, ideas, desires, deeds, impulses and memories.

Stones are checked every so often to see if any have split or at worst exploded. An explosion can leave debris in the elements so the firing has to be abandoned.

The Palestinians need more help from the Arab countries. Since 1967, the world has learned that there is not going to be real progress in the region until Palestine gets something back that they had.

And the associated danger for the identity of Europe cannot be ignored out of a wrongly understood sense of respect... The Catholic side sees this clearly and says as much.

If everyone can make music. Make better music.

We really don't have a policy [on climate change]. There's a lot of rhetoric and not a lot of action.

People are much less interested in what you are trying to show them than what you are trying to hide.

And I think it's safe to say that the single very impressive figure to me was Merle Haggard.

You can't be a first-world economy in the 21st century if you haven't laid the groundwork to seize the opportunities.