On life in Rhode Island, USA:

"It's a microcosm, really, like a childhood that never went away. One knows the shore of Naragansett Bay (and the sea, as Jimi says, is the biggest thing you know aboout), and therefore know life is much bigger than perception, at a very young age. Sand, ocean, sky, storms...all infinities, the inner universe biggest of all. That's summer. Then with autumn, back to Providence (known, invariably, as The City), with brick schools, asphalt streets, and winter rains and snows. Urban Christmas, summers full of horizons, and music playing in the background, and books behind them. The state's emblem is the Independent Man, and I can be right there, on that streetcorner or that rock by the surf, within the hour, between inner and outer space, full of words and tunes. As always."

"A fine, grey, drizzly, New England morning, just the thing to fill the swamps and make the leaves turn. 'And I rose in rainy autumn and walked abroad in a shower of all my days,' says Mr. Auden, in my favorite quote of his."

On the subject of holidays:

"It occurred to me this morning that the nice thing about holidays is not the isolated occasion of them, but the fact that like streetcars or links on a chain, they stand for what's past and what's to come, too. These times weren't invented to cancel the present, but to reassure us that there has been, and will be, more."

Music and casseroles:

"There is, I think, something preverbal about feeding people when there's trouble. A way of offering comfort, perhaps. There should be a Mudcat Brigade, parachuting into war zones with music and casseroles."

On language and teaching:

"Language is life, for me, always has been, and a classroom should be a place out of the wind. "

Good bye-

"Take care and squeeze assiduously. See you on the long side of next week.

...Mole."

The long side indeed. Cheers to you, Mole, wherever you are.

LR Mole
Nov. 10, 1951-Dec 28, 2001

"Lover of music, language, being Irish, and the holy potato"