"Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands." -Linda Hogan

"I once heard of an East African farmer who, in the nineteen-twenties, traded his vast flax plantation for a much smaller plot devoted to damask roses. He liked the notion of being able to transport an entire harvest to Paris in a suitcase, attar being worth more, per gram, than cocaine. I like that notion myself. Every writer's ambition is to ( Read more... )

"God quickened in the sea, and in the rivers ( Read more... )

It Was So Dark Inside the WolfAll day with nothing on my mind, the soft old couch ( Read more... )

my dreams, my works, must wait till after hellI hold my honey and I store my bread ( Read more... )

Today's episode of beautiful things is ( scented. )

~X~
There is a whirlwind in southern Morocco, the aajej, against which the fellahin defend themselves with knives. There is the africo, which has at times reached into the city of Rome. The alm, a fall wind out of Yugoslavia. The arifi, also christened aref or rifi, which scorches with numerous tongues. These are permanent winds that live in ( Read more... )

Poetry never has any kindness at all. ~Stevie Smith

Everyone should have one great secret to carry round like a talisman. Then, when people look at you, thinking 'she's like this' or 'she's only this', they'll always be wrong. ~Chloe Hooper

To know that one has a secret is to know half the secret itself. ~Henry Ward BeecherThe soul is not a soul ( Read more... )

This is not simply a story about a frog and a prince. A story about a frog would be biological. A story about a prince would be historical. But a story about a frog-prince is magical, and therein lies all the difference. ~Jane Yolen(Angela Carter) once remarked, "A fairy tale is a story where one king goes to another king to borrow a cup of sugar ( Read more... )

Gratitude to Old TeachersWhen we stride or stroll across the frozen lake ( Read more... )