in shoe boxes

“I swear, I’ll try harder not to miss as much: the tree, or how your fingers under still sleep-stunned sheets coaxed all my colors back.”

“One gazes into the blue darkness, and dreams of the dream, and one’s eyes hurt, but one is too sore by that time for tears to heal.”

To this dark place I’ve come, and come again

If you could have wings would you want them?

I want as much self-knowledge as I can get—let me not be deceived—but self-knowledge isn’t the goal I seek. Strength, strength is what I want. Strength not to endure, I have done that and it has made me weak—but strength to act—

“all that’s been wrested from doubt I greet, the mouths opened again after knowing well what silence means.”

To look at the river made of time and water

“Tear me apart at the seams but gently, please. I am drowsy and bursting and full of wildflowers.”

“Women’s ‘heal everything, fix everything’ compulsion is a major entrapment constructed by the requirements placed upon us by our own cultures, mainly pressures to prove that we are not just standing around taking up space and enjoying ourselves, but that we have redeemable value… . But the cries of the suffering world cannot all be answered by a single person all the time. We can truly only choose to respond to those that allow us to go home on a regular basis, otherwise our heart-lights dim to almost nothing. What the heart wishes to help is sometimes different from what the soul’s resources be… . It is right and proper that women eke out, liberate, take, make, connive to get, assert their right to go home. Home is a sustained mood or sense that allows us to experience … wonder, vision, peace, freedom from worry, freedom from demands, freedom from constant clacking. All these treasures from home are meant to be cached in the psyche for later use in the topside world.”

“Many paths lead from the foot of the mountain, but at the peak we all gaze at the single bright moon. Ikkyu”

“From love bitterness became sweet, from love copper became gold, from love the dregs became pure, from love the pains became medicine, from love the dead became alive, from love the king is made a slave”

“O little forest, meekly Touch the snow with low branches! O covered stones Hide the house growth! Secret Vegetal words, Unlettered water, Daily Zero. Pray undistracted Curled tree Carved in steel – Buried zenith! Fire, turn inward To your weak fort, To a burly infant spot, A house of nothing. O peace, bless this mad place: Silence, love this growth. O silence, golden zero Unsetting sun Love winter when the plant says nothing.”

“One of the reasons why we crave love, and seek it so desperately, is that love is the only cure for loneliness, and shame, and sorrow. But some feelings sink so deep into the heart that only loneliness can help you find them again. Some truths about yourself are so painful that only shame can help you live with them. And some things are just so sad that only your soul can do the crying for you.”

“Choose to be in touch with what is wonderful, refreshing, and healing within yourself and around you. Thich Nhat Hanh”

“Black is the color of descent. Black is a promise that you will soon know something you did not know before.”

“The bad news is you’re falling through the air, nothing to hang on to, no parachute. The good news is, there’s no ground.”

“کوه با نخستین سنگ ها آغاز می شود …من با نخستین نگاه تو آغاز شدم Mountain begins with the first stones And I came to life with your first gaze”