“Good—we’ll both learn how people are wounded, and how they’re healed.”— Kurt Vonnegut, from a letter to Nanny Vonnegut written c. August 1975
“To touch and remind you.”— Amy Lowell, from The Complete Poems & Writings; “A Roxbury Garden,”
The sad reality of December is that it got messy before its time. Like, we all knew it was going to come to that but what. a. total. mess. Let’s be over with it.
“I’m glad that you are platonically in love. That’s one of the best ways—”— Virginia Woolf, from a letter to Julian Bell written c. December 1935
“Warmth, perfume, rugs, soft lights, books.”— Anaïs Nin, from a diary entry featured in Mirages: The Unexpurgated Diary; 1939-1947
“I am ruled only by my heart, my thought; I am the one who rules myself.”— Julia de Burgos, from Song of the Simple Truth: Poems; “You Do Not Rule,”
“The wound is open,”— Anne Sexton, from The Complete Poems; “Grandfather, Your Wound,”
Emotional consistency cannot be forced. It shows when it’s genuine and it shows when someone forces or fakes it. It feels as real as ever when you do not even begin to understand it. It has nothing to do with habit or need; it is unique and beautiful and it epitomizes everything precious and good and brave about doing justice to who you are and embodying your truest feelings. It’s got to do a lot with presence but it’s not only about physical presence. It’s a very individual process, it’s not a give-n’-take process, it’s raw and intense and it’s got to do with being on the same psychological as well as spiritual level with someone so that you can always, irrespective of everything, attempt to communicate your heart to them. It shows a lot about a person and it feels amazing when someone automatically inspires it in you
God how I cling to the subtleties
“I make a knife of words.”— Eleanor Ross Taylor, from New & Selected Poems; “Tryting To Get Through,”
