The Best Stuff I Read This Week

“One of the rules of writing that stands throughout time: do not be complacent. Take risks. And most important, listen.”

—Joy Harjo / Catching the Light

“Are you quiet enough to hear horned
owls
at dawn?”

— John Wieners / “Time”

“She felt along the solid green marble of the day for the hairline crack that might let her out. This could not be forced. Out-side, the air hung swagged and the clouds sat in piles of couch stuffing, and in the south of the sky there was a tender spot, where a rainbow wanted to happen.”

— Patricia Lockwood / No One Is Talking About This

“Watch out for intellect,
because it knows so much it knows nothing
and leaves you hanging upside down,
mouthing knowledge as your heart
falls out of your mouth.”

— Anne Sexton / “Admonitions to a Special Person”

“… one fruitless search after another, each one taking an unexpected bad turn, and you’re exhausted — seems like you’ve been here your whole life, squandering opportunities, lost opportunities. Every day another daily dose of poison, what are you going to do?”

— Bob Dylan / The Philosophy of Modern Song

“To ‘have not’ is a mental state as well as an economic one.”

— Kate Beaton / Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands

“The traditional ways and rituals of all of Earth’s peoples are kept in containers of poetry, song, and story. It is how we know who we are, where we are coming from and who we are becoming.”

— Joy Harjo / Catching the Light

What I’m Listening To:

“…At long last, there’s room to think
At long last, I sleep with hope
At long last, god is in his place
So pay attention…”

— Swell / “At Long Last”