"Currently, the entire US scientific community shares a single deep-sea submersible named Alvin. With just one Alvin, long-range exploration is nearly impossible. Alvin doesn't even know where to go because we don't have a decent map." - Graham S. Hawkes

 "I learn by going where I have to go." - Theodore Roethke

I learn by doing what I have to do.
Don't need a map. At most I get
lost, I've been there before.
I know my way around a strange city.
I figured how to swim by falling into
the pool at Shangri-La and not drowning.
Years of studying writing taught me
little but envy. Now I turn
off the lights and wait for the deep
and if I don't wake up screaming
in the morning I have a poem.

(2003)