July 2011
50 posts
“There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do dead men’s fingers call them:
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up:
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes;
As one capable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indued
Unto that element: but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull’d the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.” —Shakespeare, Hamlet, act IV scene VII
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do dead men’s fingers call them:
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up:
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes;
As one capable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indued
Unto that element: but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull’d the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.” —Shakespeare, Hamlet, act IV scene VII
“[Poetry] may make us from time to time a little more aware of the deeper, unnamed feelings which form the substratum of our being, to which we rarely penetrate; for our lives are mostly a constant evasion of ourselves.”
—T.S. Eliot
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.” —1 Corinthians 13:4
Love never fails.” —1 Corinthians 13:4
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, —- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! —- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnet 43
“Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behaviour. You’re by no means alone on that score, you’ll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You’ll learn from them—if you want to. Just as some day, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It’s a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn’t education. It’s history. It’s poetry.”
— J.D Salinger
“In Atlanta, the first question is ‘What’s your business?’
In Macon, it is ‘Where do you go to church?’
In Augusta they want your grandmother’s maiden name.
But in Savannah, the first question is ‘What would you like to drink?’” —John Berendt, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
In Macon, it is ‘Where do you go to church?’
In Augusta they want your grandmother’s maiden name.
But in Savannah, the first question is ‘What would you like to drink?’” —John Berendt, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
When you know, you just know.
“A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.”
—Hunter S. Thompson
“I sometimes think that people’s hearts are like deep wells. Nobody knows what’s at the bottom. All you can do is guess from what comes floating to the surface every once in a while.”
—Haruki Murakami, Aeroplane
“I shall love you till that final stretch of sand that the sea never quite reaches is finally swathed by crashing waves. Or perhaps longer…if there’s time.”
—Morrissey
“We’re all going to die, all of us, what a circus. That alone should make us love each other but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities; We are eaten up by nothing.”
—Charles Bukowski
“The way I define happiness is being the creator of your experience, choosing to take pleasure in what you have, right now, regardless of the circumstances, while being the best you that you can be.”
—Leo Babauta (via kari-shma)
8 DAYS.
“There are countries, there are rivers,
In your eyes,
My country is your eyes,
I walk through them,
They light the world
Through which I walk,
Lovely one.” —Pablo Neruda, from “Lovely One”
In your eyes,
My country is your eyes,
I walk through them,
They light the world
Through which I walk,
Lovely one.” —Pablo Neruda, from “Lovely One”
“I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you—especially when you are near me, as now: it is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame. And if that boisterous channel, and two hundred miles or so of land come broad between us, I am afraid that cord of communion will be snapt; and then I’ve a nervous notion I should take to bleeding inwardly.”
—Mr. Rochester, Jane Eyre
“Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but of looking outward together in the same direction.”
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery
“Your voice still sounds in my ears. Soft explosions that blossom with the beat of my heart.”
—
“This was unexpected, my soul’s connection to you. You stole my loneliness. No one knows that I was wishing for you, a thief, to enter my house of autonomy; that I had locked my doors but my windows were open, hoping, but not believing, you would enter.”
—Douglas Copeland, Microserfs
Play
And if you never let me go, I will never let you down.
“Unless it’s mad, passionate, extraordinary love, it’s a waste of your time. There are too many mediocre things in life. Love shouldn’t be one of them.”
— Dream for an Insomniac
“Growing up Southern is a privilege. It’s more than where you’re born; it’s an idea, a state of mind that seems imparted at birth. It’s more than loving fried chicken, sweet tea, baseball, bibles, and country music. It’s being devoted to screen porches, magnolias, coca-cola, and each other. We don’t become Southern, we’re born that way.”
—
487. None of it counts unless you graduate.
Offering
The Avett Brothers
Avett Brothers, Offering
Babe I’m lost
Cause I don’t know what to say
Mmmm I love you
Want to make you my wife someday
Don’t wanna steal you
Of a young woman’s light
To me it’s perfect
Just wanna do you right
And I’ve known others
And I’ve loved others too
But I loved them ‘cause they were stepping stones
On a staircase to you
Sometimes I act foolish
I don’t know what to do
Please babe try not to judge me
For my offering is true
And I dream of children
We can call our own
Watch ‘em run around in the front yard
From the front porch of our home
“Look, in my opinion, the best thing you can do is find a person who loves you for exactly what you are. Good mood, bad mood, ugly, pretty, handsome, what have you, the right person is still going to think the sun shines out your ass. That’s the kind of person that’s worth sticking with.”
—Juno
“We’re all going to die. Write that down, miss. We don’t have the luxury of a thousand years on this earth. Only sixty, or maybe eighty little years if we’re lucky. And these years pass in a flash. Why not offer flowers to your spouse every night? Why deprive yourself of the happiness of making your house a home? Why resist your impulse? Daily life is the most beautiful voyage.”
—Louis Pauze
“You are right in assuming that I am indifferent to the pattern of things. I am. I have never liked stale phrases and bodyless courage. I have the nerve to walk my own way, however hard, in my search for reality, rather than climb upon the rattling wagon of wishful illusions.”
—Zora Neale Hurston
“”Home should be where the heart is, never were words so true… My heart’s far, far away… Home is too.”
—
