It's not the riddle of desire that interests me: it is the riddle of good hands, chervil in a windowbox, the white pages of a book, someone says I'm tired, someone turning on the light...

- Robert Hass, Santa Lucia

Sun, sunflower, coltsfoot on the roadside, a goldfinch, the sign that says Yield, her hair, cat's eyes, his hunger and a yellow bicycle....

- Robert Hass, The Yellow Bicycle

Cartas Amarillas, Nino Bravo

All the new thinking is about loss. In this it resembles all the old thinking...

- Robert Hass, Meditation at Lagunitas

Saddest Song

I know that I know myself no more than a seed curled in the dark of a winged pod knows flourishing...

- Robert Hass, In Weather

Japanese flute

The poet is a monarch of the clouds...

- Robert Hass, The Nineteenth Century as a Song

...sedge, flag, owl's clover, rotting wharves...

- Robert Hass, Palo Alto:The Marshes

Bluegrass

Mud, roots, old cartridges, blood. High overhead, the long silence of the geese...

- Robert Hass, Palo Alto: The Marshes