You have a lot of ups and downs in coaching especially but I can't remember any bad times at this point. I mean they're all good. A lot of tears when you lose a lot of down times but I can't remember any of them. They're all positive now. Even the bad times were good.

I call it people-to-people politics and that's what politics should be about reaching out and helping one another and touching one another about what we're going to do.

Flipping the dial through available radio stations there will blare out to any listener an array of broadcasts 24/7 propagating Religious Right politics along with what they deem to be 'old-time gospel preaching.' This is especially true of what comes over the airwaves in Bible Belt southern states.

What she did was to open our eyes to details of country life such as teaching us names of wild flowers and getting us to draw and paint and learn poetry.

Besides the actual reading in class of many poems I would suggest you do two things: first while teaching everything you can and keeping free of it teach that poetry is a mode of discourse that differs from logical exposition.

I learned to impersonate the kind of person that talks about poetry. It comes from teaching I think.

Teaching writing over the years intrudes on your own writing in important ways taking away some of the excitement of poetry.

I thought to spend my declining years writing poetry and teaching - but that won't pay the Bergdorf's bill. I think I'll move to somewhere life is cheaper.

On Memorial Day I don't want to only remember the combatants. There were also those who came out of the trenches as writers and poets who started preaching peace men and women who have made this world a kinder place to live.

Secondly I would like to make continuous efforts of stabilising cross Strait relations eventually reaching peace across the Taiwan strait and stability and security in the Asia Pacific region.