The Wages Of Dying Is Love

"What, anyway, was that sticky infusion, that rank
flavor of blood, that poetry, by which I lived?"

Galway Kinnell

Rest In Peace

"I don’t recognize the distinction between nature poetry and, what would be the other thing? Human civilization poetry? We are creatures of the earth who build our elaborate cities and beavers are creatures of the earth who build their elaborate lodges and canal operations and dams, just as we do..."

Beyond The Horizon

Photograph by Lynn Goldsmith, 1983.

Quote Of The Week

"People with self-respect exhibit a certain toughness, a kind of moral nerve; they display what was once called 'character,' a quality which, although approved in the abstract, sometimes loses ground to other, more instantly negotiable virtues... Nonetheless, character — the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life — is the source from which self-respect springs."

Vigor For Life

"Everything we do has significance. Every action, every thought leaves an imprint — not only on the self, but on the world, on the others, and even on time, on all who come after us! This implies a responsibility for one's thoughts and actions that should be taken most seriously! And yet one feels helpless, a hapless victim of circumstances beyond one's control, as if one's behavior and thoughts did not originate in the self, but were a product, an accumulation of imprints from the world, from our ancestors, from the people around us. It behooves one to take responsibility, to take the power to decide how one will act, and even how one will think! Not only for the betterment of one's self, but for the betterment of the world, all the others, and all who will come after us!"

Photograph by Harry Benson, 1968

Dancing In The Moonlight

Photograph by Lee Greenfeld © 2014

Quote Of The Week

“I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.”

Ode To Eternity

"O man, take care!

What does the deep midnight declare?

"I was asleep—

From a deep dream I woke and swear:—

The world is deep,

Deeper than day had been aware.

Deep is its woe—

Joy—deeper yet than agony:

Woe implores: Go!

But all joy wants eternity—

Wants deep, wants deep eternity."

From Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883)

Quote Of The Week

"What can an eternity of damnation matter to someone who has felt, if only for a second, the infinity of delight?"

Midnight Was My Cry

Carolyn Kizer

Rest In Peace

Quote Of The Week

"He was free, free in every way, free to behave like a fool or a machine, free to accept, free to refuse, free to equivocate; to marry, to give up the game, to drag this death weight about with him for years to come. He could do what he liked, no one had the right to advise him, there would be for him no Good or Evil unless he thought them into being."