the River of forgetfulness

But in a solitary life,

there are rare moments when another soul dips near yours,

as stars once a year brush the earth.

Such a constellation was he to me.

Naked Woman

The Pomegranate that broke

Was full of stars.

~Seferis

“Persephone had it right.

If you must go,

might as well take all of spring with you—”

~Cathy Linh Che

You loved fire, 

and the hail that had no memory. 

You loved to forget.

Larry Levis

I don’t know where I’m going.

Where I came from is disappearing.

I am unwelcome.

My beauty is not beauty here.

My body is burning with the shame of not belonging, my body is longing.

I am the sin of memory and the absence of memory.

~W. Shire

You have to remember that I've been lonely for a long time.

Loneliness is like ice.

After you've been lonely long enough you don't realize you're cold, but you are . . .

I don't know, maybe at the center of me there's some ice that never will melt, maybe it's just been there too long.

But you mustn't worry.

You didn't put it there.

~Larry McMurtry

“On the moon we have everything.

Lettuce, and pumpkin pie and Amanita phalloides.

We have cat-furred plants and horses dancing with their wings.

All the locks are solid and tight, and there are no ghosts.”

“That was her.

PURE, LUCID, EVIL.

I’d sleep all right with that on top of me.”

— Bertolt Brecht