The smallest muscle in the human body is in the ear.It is also the only muscle that does not have blood vessels; It has fluid instead. The reason for this is clear:The ear is so sensitive that the body, if it heard its own pulse,Would be devastated by the amplification of its own sound.In this… Continue reading Alberto Ríos
And those you never forgive you find impossible to forget. — Jane Urquhart, The Underpainter (McClelland & Stewart, 1997)
On Joy and Sorrow Then a woman said, Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.And he answered:Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.And how else can it be?The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.Is not… Continue reading Khalil Gibran
Up until a certain afternoon, at closing time, the librarian may come and return me to the shelf where I belong, the precise place where someone grabbed me one fine day, who knows why, perhaps to learn to translate sadness into another language, perhaps to love me as a beloved book—that is, forever. No, not… Continue reading Gemma Gorga
We’re unpreparedfor our little disappointments.Normally I might not pay attentionto sunlight pouring into the courtyardbut this afternoon, I do —probably because it’s already nearly gone.None of us mentions the night,but I, for one, would like tobe expecting it, whenit comes. — Nathan McClain, from “Power Outage Elegy,” Waxwing (Issue VIII, 2016)
“I’m often difficult to love. I go through dark periods like the moon and I hide from myself. But I promise I will kiss your wounds when they’re hurting. Even if they’re in your soul, I can find them with the light in my fingertips. I will lead you to the river so you can… Continue reading Emery Allen
The universe is creaking like boardsThumping with heartbeatsAnd bonebeats —James Dickey, from “Approaching Prayer,” Collected Poems: 1945-1992 (Wesleyan University Press, 1992)
Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech; which is the Right of every Man, as far as by it, he does not hurt or controul the Right of another: And this is the only Check it ought to suffer,… Continue reading Benjamin Franklin
Deep in the silent inner roomEvery fiber of my soft heartTurns to a thousand strands of sorrow.I loved the Spring,But the Spring is goneAs rain hastens the falling petals.I lean on the balustrade,Moving from one end to the other.My emotions are still disordered.Where is he?Withered grass stretches to the horizonAnd hides from sightAny road by… Continue reading Li Ch’ing-Chao
Deep within everyone’s heart there always remains a sense of longing for that hour, that summer, that one brief moment of blossoming. For several weeks or months, rarely longer, a beautiful young woman lives outside ordinary life. She is intoxicated. She feels as if she exists beyond time, beyond its laws; she experiences not the… Continue reading Irène Némirovsky
The Vale of Soul-Making 