She had to possess the courage to enter, through language, states which most people deny or veil with silence.
Adrienne Rich, On Lies, Secrets, and Silence: Selected Prose, 1966-1978
This afternoon it rains as never before; and I
don’t feel like staying alive, heart. This afternoon is pleasant. Why shouldn’t it be?
It is wearing grace and pain; it is dressed like a woman.
César Vallejo, from “Down to the Dregs”
And here I bloom for a short hour unseen,
Drinking my juices up,
With no root in the land
To keep my branches green,
But stand
In a bare cup.
Henry David Thoreau, from “I Am a Parcel of Vain Strivings Tied”
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