In any family, the joy of a wedding must be tinged with a little anxiety. So many marriages fail. Luckily, people often get over such traumas. But for the Royal Family, marriages carry the gravest dangers.

But the gravest difficulty, and perhaps the most important, in poetry meant solely for recitation, is the difficulty of achieving verbal beauty, or rather of making verbal beauty tell.

Environmental disaster is the gravest threat to China's continued development. That's according to me, but it is not some wacko view.

As when astronaut Mike Mulhane was asked by a NASA psychiatrist what epitaph he'd like to have on his gravestone, Mulhane answered, "A loving husband and devoted father," though in reality, he jokes in "Riding Rockets," "I would have sold my wife and children into slavery for a ride into space.

When I die of heart failure the next time you frighten me like that, you can put that on my gravestone-'I didn't mean to startle her.

What will be left of all the fearing and wanting associated with your problematic life situation that every day takes up most of your attention? A dash, one or two inches long, between the date of birth and date of death on your gravestone.

By presenting a faithful and honest record of my experience as a mother I hope to show both my readers and my children how truth can redeem even what you fear might be the gravest of sins.

Environmental disaster is the gravest threat to China's continued development. That's according to me but it is not some wacko view.

But the gravest difficulty and perhaps the most important in poetry meant solely for recitation is the difficulty of achieving verbal beauty or rather of making verbal beauty tell.