Yesterday was a lovely day to be outside. We did end up driving down to the Laudholm Farm bird sanctuary, and then I spent most of the rest of the day working in the backyard--mowing, weeding, putting up the hammock, cleaning chairs and table, and otherwise getting the space into reasonably alluring condition.

Today will be even lovelier, though I'll be back at my desk for most of it. But at least the windows will be open all over the house, at least I'll get in my morning walk, at least I'll have clothes to hang on the line, at least I'll have poems bubbling in my thoughts. That's one good thing about responsible behavior: I can sneak away from it.

In his copy of the New Testament [Herman Melville] underlined a passage in Romans 14: "Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God."

The only kind of Faith--one's own, he wrote in the top margin.

                       --from Dayswork by Chris Bachelder and Jennifer Habel