“Poetry was a discipline grounded in experience that drew its life and worth from a source much greater than oneself, and as it realized its potential to touch others in their innermost being, what [Kathleen] Fraser has termed their "yearning side," it could be a profoundly communal act. Poetry, when it succeeded, did so in ways that were not quantifiable,… — Kathleen Norris Copy Share
“One difficulty that people seeking to modernize hymnals and the language of worship inevitably run into is that contemporaries are never the… — Kathleen Norris Copy Share Image
I wonder if children don't begin to reject both poetry and religion for similar reasons, because the way both are taught takes… — Kathleen Norris Copy Share Image
Poets are immersed in process, and I mean process not as an amorphous blur but as a discipline. The hard work of… — Kathleen Norris Copy Share Image
“...the imagination works not so much through inspiration as through perseverance. One must slog through the false starts, spot the wrong words… — Kathleen Norris Copy Share Image
One may have been a fool, but there's no foolishness like being bitter. — Kathleen Norris Copy Share Image
The ordinary activities I find most compatible with contemplation are walking, baking bread, and doing laundry. — Kathleen Norris Copy Share Image
“At its Greek root, "to believe" simply means "to give one's heart to." Thus, if we can determine what it is we give our… — Kathleen Norris Copy Share Image
In any free society, the conflict between social conformity and individual liberty is permanent, unresolvable, and necessary — Kathleen Norris Copy Share Image
Before you begin a thing, remind yourself that difficulties and delays quite impossible to foresee are ahead. If you could see them clearly, naturally… — Kathleen Norris Copy Share Image
When you are unhappy, is there anything more maddening than to be told that you should be contented with your lot? — Kathleen Norris Copy Share Image
“I was vaguely attracted to both library science and accounting, for the way that these disciplines impose order on chaos.” — Kathleen Norris Copy Share Image
None of us knows what the next change is going to be, what unexpected opportunity is just around the corner, waiting a few months… — Kathleen Norris Copy Share Image
Laundry, liturgy and women's work all serve to ground us in the world, and they need not grind us down. Our daily tasks, whether… — Kathleen Norris Copy Share Image
The demon of acedia -- also called the noonday demon -- is the one that causes the most serious trouble of all. . .… — Kathleen Norris Copy Share Image
