We have to consciously study how to be tender with each other until it becomes a habit because what was native has been stolen from us…but we can practice being gentle with each other by being gentle with that piece of ourselves that is hardest to hold.
~ Audre Lorde
To me, poetry is somebody standing up, so to speak, and saying, with as little concealment as possible, what it is for him or her to be on earth at this moment.
~ Galway Kinnell
When loneliness comes stalking, go into the fields, consider
the orderliness of the world. Notice
something you have never noticed before,like the tambourine sound of the snow-cricket
whose pale green body is no longer than your thumb.Stare hard at the hummingbird, in the summer rain,
shaking the water-sparks from its wings.Let grief be your sister, she will whether or not.
Rise up from the stump of sorrow, and be green also,
like the diligent leaves.A lifetime isn’t long enough for the beauty of this world
and the responsibilities of your life.Scatter your flowers over the graves, and walk away.
Be good-natured and untidy in your exuberance.In the glare of your mind, be modest
And beholden to what is tactile, and thrilling.Live with the beetle, and the wind.
~ Mary Oliver
breezes at dawn 