9/10/25

At first, our pack was all hair and snarl and floor-thumping joy.

“St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” by Karen Russell

9/9/25

Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

9/8/25

All children, except one, grow up.

Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie

9/7/25

All this happened, more or less.

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

9/6/25

Be near me now,
My tormenter, my love, be near me—
At this hour when night comes down,
When, having drunk from the gash of sunset,

darkness comes
With the balm of musk in its hands, its diamond

lancets,
When it comes with cries of lamentation,

with laughter with songs; Its blue-gray anklets of pain clinking with every step.

At this hour when hearts, deep in their hiding places,

Have begun to hope once more, when they start their vigil

For hands still enfolded in sleeves;
When wine being poured makes the sound

of inconsolable children who, though you try with all your heart,

cannot be soothed. When whatever you want to do cannot be done,

When nothing is of any use;
—At this hour when night comes down, When night comes, dragging its long face,

dressed in mourning,

Be with me,

My tormenter, my love, be near me.

“Be Near Me” by Faiz Ahmed Faiz

9/5/25

Then Almitra spoke again and said, And

what of Marriage, master?

     And he answered saying:

     You were born together, and together you

shall be forevermore.

     You shall be together when the white

wings of death scatter your days.

     Ay, you shall be together even in the

silent memory of God.

     But let there be spaces in your togetherness,

     And let the winds of the heavens dance

between you.

     Love one another, but make not a bond

of love:

     Let it rather be a moving sea between

the shores of your souls.

     Fill each other’s cup but drink not from

one cup.

     Give one another of your bread but eat

not from the same loaf.

     Sing and dance together and be joyous,

but let each one of you be alone,

     Even as the strings of a lute are alone

though they quiver with the same music.

     Give your hearts, but not into each

other’s keeping.

     For only the hand of Life can contain

your hearts.

     And stand together yet not too near

together:

     For the pillars of the temple stand apart,

     And the oak tree and the cypress grow

not in each other’s shadow.

“On Marriage” by Khalil Gibran

9/4/25

Then a lawyer said, But what of our Laws,

master?

    And he answered:

    You delight in laying down laws,

    Yet you delight more in breaking them.

    Like children playing by the ocean who

build sand-towers with constancy and then

destroy them with laughter.

    But while you build your sand-towers the

ocean brings more sand to the shore,

    And when you destroy them the ocean

laughs with you.

    Verily the ocean laughs always with the

innocent.

    But what of those to whom life is not an

ocean, and man-made laws are not sand-

towers,

    But to whom life is a rock, and the law

a chisel with which they would carve it in

their own likeness?

    What of the cripple who hates dancers?

    What of the ox who loves his yoke and

deems the elk and deer of the forest

stray and vagrant things?

    What of the old serpent who cannot

shed his skin, and calls all others naked

and shameless?

    And of him who comes early to the

wedding-feast, and when over-fed and tired

goes his way saying that all feasts are

violation and all feasters lawbreakers?

    What shall I say of these save that they

too stand in the sunlight, but with their

backs to the sun?

    They see only their shadows, and their

shadows are their laws.

    And what is the sun to them but a caster

of shadows?

    And what is it to acknowledge the laws

but to stoop down and trace their shadows

upon the earth?

    But you who walk facing the sun, what

images drawn on the earth can hold you?

    You who travel with the wind, what

weather-vane shall direct your course?

    What man’s law shall bind you if you

break your yoke but upon no man's prison

door?

    What laws shall you fear if you dance

but stumble against no man’s iron chains?

    And who is he that shall bring you to

judgment if you tear off your garment yet

leave it in no man’s path?

    People of Orphalese, you can muffle the

drum, and you can loosen the strings of the

lyre, but who shall command the skylark

not to sing?

“On Laws” by Khalil Gibran

9/3/25

In my youth I was told that in a certain city every one lived
according to the Scriptures.
 
And I said, “I will seek that city and the blessedness thereof.”
And it was far.  And I made great provision for my journey.  And
after forty days I beheld the city and on the forty-first day I
entered into it.
 
And lo! the whole company of the inhabitants had each but a single
eye and but one hand.  And I was astonished and said to myself,
“Shall they of this so holy city have but one eye and one hand?”
 
Then I saw that they too were astonished, for they were marveling
greatly at my two hands and my two eyes.  And as they were speaking
together I inquired of them saying, “Is this indeed the Blessed
City, where each man lives according to the Scriptures?”  And they
said, “Yes, this is that city.”
 
“And what,” said I, “hath befallen you, and where are your right
eyes and your right hands?”
 
And all the people were moved.  And they said, “Come thou and see.”
 
And they took me to the temple in the midst of the city.  And in
the temple I saw a heap of hands and eyes.  All withered.  Then said
I, “Alas! what conqueror hath committed this cruelty upon you?”
 
And there went a murmur amongst them.  And one of their elders
stood forth and said, “This doing is of ourselves.  God hath made
us conquerors over the evil that was in us.”
 
And he led me to a high altar, and all the people followed.  And
he showed me above the altar an inscription graven, and I read:
 
 
“If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee;
for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish,
and not that the whole body should be cast into hell.  And if thy
right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee; for it
is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and
not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.”
 
 
Then I understood.  And I turned about to all the people and cried,
“Hath no man or woman among you two eyes or two hands?”
 
And they answered me saying, “No, not one.  There is none whole save
such as are yet too young to read the Scripture and to understand
its commandment.”
 
And when we had come out of the temple, I straightway left that
Blessed City; for I was not too young, and I could read the scripture.

“The Blessed City” by Khalil Gibran

9/2/25

Three men met at a tavern table.  One was a weaver, another a
carpenter and the third a ploughman.
 
Said the weaver, “I sold a fine linen shroud today for two pieces
of gold.  Let us have all the wine we want.”
 
“And I,” said the carpenter, “I sold my best coffin.  We will have
a great roast with the wine.”
 
“I only dug a grave,” said the ploughman, “but my patron paid me
double.  Let us have honey cakes too.”
 
And all that evening the tavern was busy, for they called often
for wine and meat and cakes.  And they were merry.
 
And the host rubbed his hands and smiled at his wife; for his guests
were spending freely.
 
When they left the moon was high, and they walked along the road
singing and shouting together.
 
The host and his wife stood in the tavern door and looked after
them.
 
“Ah!” said the wife, “these gentlemen!  So freehanded and so gay!
If only they could bring us such luck every day!  Then our son need
not be a tavern-keeper and work so hard.  We could educate him,
and he could become a priest.”

“Ambition” by Khalil Gibran

9/1/25

It is a willow when summer is over,

a willow by the river

from which no leaf has fallen nor

bitten by the sun

turned orange or crimson.

The leaves cling and grow paler,

swing and grow paler

over the swirling waters of the river

as if loath to let go,

they are so cool, so drunk with

the swirl of the wind and of the river—

oblivious to winter,

the last to let go and fall

into the water and on the ground.

“Willow Poem” by William Carlos Williams

8/31/25

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.

Psalm 33, KJV

8/30/25

Praise the Lord with the harp;

Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings.

Sing to Him a new song;

Play skillfully with a shout of joy.

Psalm 33, KJV

8/29/25

Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! for the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night.

“Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold

8/28/25

The Sea of Faith

Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore

Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled

“Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold

8/27/25

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

“Gettysburg Address,” Abraham Lincoln

8/26/25

Odysseus was not the only one

who did not come back home again from Troy.

Many were lost. Go in and do your work.

I.354-356 of Homer’s Odyssey

8/25/25

Beneath his feet the snail kept on, feeling its way forward, dragging the house of its shel, fitting its body to the sand, to the private unlit horizons that whorled all around it.

“The Shell Collector” by Anthony Doerr

8/24/25

I have been one acquainted with the night.

I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.

I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.

I have passed by the watchman on his beat

And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet

When far away an interrupted cry

Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;

And further still at an unearthly height,

One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.

I have been one acquainted with the night.

“Acquainted With the Night” by Robert Frost

8/23/25

…

The half is a mere moment of inability

but you are able for you are not half a being

You are a whole that exists to live a life

not half a life”

…

“Do not love half lovers” by Kahlil Gibran

8/22/25

…

To reach and not arrive

Work and not work

Attend only to be absent

What makes you a stranger to them closest to you

and they strangers to you

…

“Do not love half lovers” by Kahlil Gibran