The fact of the matter is that the most unexpected and miraculous thing in my life was the arrival in it of poetry itself - as a vocation and an elevation almost.
A public expectation it has to be said not of poetry as such but of political positions variously approvable by mutually disapproving groups.
Traditional matter must be glorified since it would be easier to listen to the re-creation of familiar stories than to quite new and unexpected things the listeners we must remember needed poetry chiefly as the re-creation of tired hours.
A poem can have an impact but you can't expect an audience to understand all the nuances.
No poem is easily grasped so why should any reader expect fast results?
Well I think by any expectation South Africa has come a tremendously long way. We've seen a society that many people thought couldn't withstand a peaceful transition to democracy without a great deal of violence in fact make that transition and do it in relative peace and security.
Afghanistan is very satisfied with Croatia's participation in the NATO-led peace mission and expects Croatia to expand its contribution to peace restoration in Afghanistan to other areas as well.
What they could do with 'round here is a good war. What else can you expect with peace running wild all over the place? You know what the trouble with peace is? No organization.
Across the country military families are facing dire financial circumstances due to longer than expected tours of duties. They are being penalized for their patriotism - no one should have to choose between doing right by their country and doing right by their families.
Sometimes they are a matter of luck the photographer could not expect or hope for them. Sometimes they are a matter of patience waiting for an effect to be repeated that he has seen and lost or for one that he anticipates.
We criticize mothers for closeness. We criticize fathers for distance. How many of us have expected less from our fathers and appreciated what they gave us more? How many of us always let them off the hook?
Nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected momentary and fleeting yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains.
Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and repeat to yourself the most comforting words of all this too shall pass.
The thing about movies these days is that the commerce end of it is so inflated and financiers are just expecting this enormous return on their investment.
I've directed seven movies and know a thing or two about dealing with unexpected crises.
In life and in movies it's a similar challenge where you have expectations and you end up in situations that are not meeting your expectations.
You can't expect to hit the jackpot if you don't put a few nickels in the machine.
Expect problems and eat them for breakfast.
It really means a lot that I won the gold medal - but I woke up the next morning expecting to feel different. I felt the same.
You know the men go to tea houses with the expectation that they will have a nice quiet evening and not read about it the next morning in the newspaper.
The boy who expects every morning to open into a new world finds that today is like yesterday but he believes tomorrow will be different.
When a man has been consistently battering his wife he shouldn't expect a bouquet of roses from her the morning after he promises to stop.
I half knew what to expect when I saw the cricket ground in the morning. It was when I started to talk to people working out there I began to find what I was looking for.
I know I have to be like people expect because people love to dream with me they like to think that I love my boat of 50 metres that I drink Cristal for breakfast that I dance until five o'clock in the morning. I am not like that.
I've always believed in God. I also think that's the sort of thing that either comes as part of the equipment the capacity to believe or at some point in your life when you're in a position where you actually need help from a power greater than yourself you simply make an agreement.