“Clouds Come Floating Into My Life, No Longer To Carry Rain Or Usher Storm, But To Add Color To My

I am looking neither respectfully nor disrespectfully. I gaze without recognition of your form, and without understanding.

people are bad and all but when a stranger holds open a door for you and when a stranger picks up something you dropped and when a stranger smiles at you from across the street and when a stranger on a hike wishes you good morning and when a stranger hands you a rose and when a stranger lets you have their seat and when a stranger stops you to compliment your outfit and when a stranger gives you the 5 cents you’re missing and when a stranger jams their foot in the tram door so you can make it and when a stranger says bless you when you sneeze and when a stranger helps you with directions and when a stranger gets you something from the top shelf and when a stranger offers you a piece of watermelon in the park and when a stranger wishes you happy birthday because you’re holding a balloon.. maybe we are worth saving

I hope that someday when I am gone, someone, somewhere, picks my soul up off of these pages and thinks, “I would have loved her.”

- Nicole Lyons, Hush

“Life was easy with you and it came so naturally. You were the extension of me and I would never need to finish my words, as who knew me better than you? You knew your place which was by my side. It is the little things that make the person and you would easily have kept me going for a lifetime. The way you would look at me with fire in your eyes showed me that I was the only one for you. You stole my heart and hid it away.”

— from Al Mujahid's letter to his wife

I imagine what it must be like to stay hidden, disappear in the dusky nothing and stay still in the night. It’s not sadness, though it may sound like it. I’m thinking about people and trees and how I wish I could be silent more, be more tree than anything else, less clumsy and loud, less crow, more cool white pine, and how it’s hard not to always want something else, not just to let the savage grass grow.

– Ada Limón, Bright Dead Things

it sucks right now for both of us but one day we will be swaying in each other’s arm as the homemade stew we are making for dinner bubbles on the stove, the scent of love and warmth fills our cozy cottage that looks just like something from a fairytale.

I’m really bad at conversations sorry if I’ve ever talked to you

not to be all [i love you till my breathing stops i love you till you call the cops on me] [it’s rotten work not to me not if it’s you] [i can take care of myself just fine. no. what do you mean no? no] [one word from you and i would jump off of this ledge i’m on baby] [i will do anything whatever she wants] [is that too much to expect? that i would name the stars for you?] [you want to die for love you always have] [love for you is not like the usual romantic love. it’s like a religion. it’s terrifying] but i want a love full of devotion

“I think the most beautiful things on a human being are their eyes. You can see the age of their soul and the scars of their past. You can see the stars when they’re in love or the darkness of their hate. You can see the truth and the lies in their look, their heartbeat through their pupils and the art in their irises. That’s why you have to pay attention to the eyes of someone. It’s like a mirror of themselves. You can even see yourself if you ever meet a soulmate.”

— Excerpt from a book I’ll never write

Your absence has gone through me like thread through a needle. Everything I do is stitched with its color.

— W.S. Merwin