I was dependent upon my mother’s voice, her smile, her happiness to see me.

In Jewish tradition the body must be buried within 24 hours. I fight with myself about whether to travel to Cleveland.

“I find a great deal of freedom in letting go of the imaginative work and diving into the editorial work. The two enterprises are completely different. As a writer, I am serving my imagination. As an editor, I am serving the author’s imagination. Editing per se is not a creative act on the page. It is a response to creativity.”

“Although I’ve long been anticipating this moment—when my mom would put up the house for sale and move into a place where she would be better cared for—I don’t want it to happen. Right now I want to swoop in and tend to her needs, momentarily forgetting that I have a teenage son, a husband, a full-time job, and a home of my own that demand my attention.”

“If the persistence of memory keeps the memoirist and poet in its stronghold to create an authentic work of art, great personal risk must also be at stake to give the work its sense of urgency. Personal risk involves employing dangerous subject matter—what you dare say! The best poems and memoir are born out of risk.”