Words are like boards when projected over some abyss spanned by human intellect. We are allowed a swift passage but not a deliberate stop. A quick one passes safely, but the moment we linger, the time-sensitive tissue rips and everything collapses to meet a bottomless chasm. Les mots sont des planches jetées sur un abîme […]
Charles Bukowski — The Vale of Soul-Making
they thought I had guts they were wrong I was only frightened of more important things
— Charles Bukowski, from “Wall Clock,” Open All Night: New Poems. (Black Sparrow Press, September 1, 2000)
Rumi — The Vale of Soul-Making
Surge like an ocean, don’t scatter yourself like a storm. Life’s waters flow from darkness. Search the darkness, don’t run from it. Night travelers are full of light, and you are, too; don’t leave this companionship.
— Rumi, from “Search the Darkness,” Love Is a Stranger (Shambhala, 2000)
Memory is each man’s poet-in-residence. — Art of Quotation
“Memory is each man’s poet-in-residence.” – Stanley Kunitz, poet
via “Memory is each man’s poet-in-residence.” — Art of Quotation
Amir Or – Le bureau — BEAUTY WILL SAVE THE WORLD
Je ne suis pas dans le bon monde. Non. Tout n’est qu’yeux – les gens, les murs – même fermés ils sont étrangers, fixés sur mon visage étranger. Sous une lumière de souffre la lampe de lecture rugit sur les pages qui sombrent dans le bureau ; une joue frémit, fermente sous l’oeil ; dans […]
E. E. Cummings — The Vale of Soul-Making
But I come with a dream in my eyes tonight, And I knock with a rose at the hopeless gate of your heart– Open to me! For I will show you the places nobody knows, And, if you like, The perfect places of Sleep. — E. E. Cummings, from “You Are Tired (I Think),” Etcetera: […]
Charles Bukowski — The Vale of Soul-Making
Memory I’ve memorized all the fish in the sea I’ve memorized each opportunity strangled and I remember awakening one morning and finding everything smeared with the color of forgotten love and I’ve memorized that too. I’ve memorized green rooms in St. Louis and New Orleans where I wept because I knew that by myself I […]
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” — Art of Quotation
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer, poet
via “The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” — Art of Quotation
“Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by…” — Art of Quotation
“Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, American, writer, poet
via “Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by…” — Art of Quotation
Langston Hughes — The Vale of Soul-Making
I would liken you To a night without stars Were it not for your eyes. I would liken you To a sleep without dreams Were it not for your songs. — Langston Hughes, “Quiet Girl,” The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes (First Vintage Classic, 1995)
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