Time

But I began then to think of time as having a shape,
something you could see, like a series of liquid transparencies,
one laid on top of another. 
You don't look back along time but down through it, like water. 
Sometimes this comes to the surface,
sometimes that,
sometimes nothing.

Nothing goes away. 

- Margaret Atwood

A purpose

A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, i
s to love whoever is around to be loved.

- Kurt Vonnegut 

Between what is said and not meant,
and what is meant and not said,
most of love is lost.

- Khalil Gibran

Mirrors and Blankets

In a world where we are left to renegotiate our traumas again and again, we have to find empathetic, patient witnesses. 
My grandmother used to say : Some people in your life need to be mirrors and show you who you are from time to time.
Some people in your life need to be blankets and embrace everything you are from time to time.
Keep your mirrors clean and bright.
Keep your blankets soft and close.

- Scherezade Siobhan

you can’t make homes out of human beings
someone should have already told you that
and if he wants to leave
then let him leave
you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love.

- Warsan Shire

I am the seasons, I think sometimes,
January, May, November;
the mud, the mist, the dawn.
I cannot be tossed about,
or float gently,
or mix with other people.

 - Virginia Woolf

Over the unmoving black body of the lake
the moon dreams its gold dream of life,
as if it were alone in the world
and what dreamer is not?

- Anne Carson
From Plainwater: Essays and Poetry; The Anthropology of Water.

When someone shows you who they are
believe them; the first time.

- Maya Angelou

No help for that

there is a place in the heart that
will never be filled

a space

and even during the
best moments
and
the greatest
times

we will know it

we will know it
more than
ever

there is a place in the heart that
will never be filled

and

we will wait
and
wait

in that
space.

– Charles Bukowski 

In time of daffodils

in time of daffodils(who know
the goal of living is to grow)
forgetting why,remembering how

in time of lilacs who proclaim
the aim of walking is to dream
remembering so(forgetting seem)

in time of roses(who amaze
our now and here with paradise)
forgetting if,remembering yes

in time of all sweet things beyond
whatever mind may comprehend,
remember seek (forgetting find)
and in a mystery to be
(when time from time shall set us free)
forgetting me, remember me
- e. e. Cummings

Why did you vanish
into empty sky?
Even the fragile snow,
when it falls,
falls in this world.

- Izumi Shikibu

I am not a smart man, particularly,
but one day, at long last,
I stumbled from the dark woods of my own,
and my family’s,
and my country’s past,
holding in my hands these truths:
that love grows from the rich loam of forgiveness;
that mongrels make good dogs;
that the evidence of God exists in the roundness of things.
This much, at least, I’ve figured out.
I know this much is true.

- Wally Lamb
From I Know This Much is True

Mad girl's Love Song

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you'd return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

- Sylvia Plath

Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It’s the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. 
The distorted guitar sound is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. 
The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. 
The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them.

- Brian Eno
From A Year with Swollen Appendices

If nobody speaks of remarkable things

You must always look with both of your eyes and listen with both of your ears. He says this is a very big world and there are many many things you could miss if you are not careful. There are remarkable things all the time, right in front of us, but our eyes have like the clouds over the sun and our lives are paler and poorer if we do not see them for what they are.
If nobody speaks of remarkable things, how can they be called remarkable?

– Jon McGregor
From If Nobody speaks of Remarkable Things

After all, the only rule of travel is,
don’t come back the way you went. 
Come a new way.

- Anne Carson
From Plainwater: Essays and Poetry; The Anthropology of Water.

I'm beginning to think
that maybe it's not just how much you love someone. 
Maybe what matters is
who you are when you're with them.

- Anne Tyler

The man who named my narrow bed was a quiet person, but he had good questions.
“I suppose you do love me, in your way,” 
I said to him one night close to dawn when we lay on the narrow bed. 
“And how else should I love you—in your way?” he asked. 
I am still thinking about that.

- Anne Carson
From Plainwater: Essays and Poetry

Not waving but drowning

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he’s dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.

- Stevie Smith

True love will find you in the end
You'll find out just who was your friend
Don't be sad, I know you will
But don't give up until

True love will find you in the end
This is a promise with a catch
Only if you're looking can it find you
'Cause true love is searching too

But how can it recognize you
If you don't step out into the light, the light
Don't be sad I know you will
Don't give up until
True love will find you in the end

- Daniel Johnston