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Image-making, wrote Wallace Stevens, ‘is primarily a discipline of rightness.’ In a good image, something previously unformulated (in the most literal sense) comes into the realm of the expressed. Without precisely this image, we feel, the world’s store of truth would be diminished; and conversely, when a writer brings into language a new image that is fully right, what is knowable of existence expands.
Jane Hirshfield, from Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry (1997, p. 18) -
My only New Year’s Eve regret was not taking a good photo of my outfit, a fuchsia Tina Turner/Muppet number I picked up at the Value Center earlier that day. I love this photo, though.
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I was in a hellish relationship a few years ago, but I swear, the moment I said goodbye, all these blessings started flowing into my life. It was like God was holding a big bag of blessings and I was holding a bag of shit, and when I let go of my bag, God was like, ‘Here you go.’
Katori Hall -
The story they say in Zen is, if you have a little piece of shit on your nose, then you will smell it wherever you go: ‘Oh this stinks, oh this stinks, cooking stinks, everything stinks, it’s all bad.’ So the expression in Zen is, ‘Wash your face.’
Edward Espe Brown, from How to Cook Your Life -
When I was first starting to cook, I asked Suzuki Roshi if he had any advice for me. He said, “When you wash the rice, wash the rice. When you cut the carrots, cut the carrots. When you stir the soup, stir the soup.” This sounds sort of simple and obvious, but a lot of the time we go through the motions. We’re not seeing with our eyes, feeling with our hands. We’re thinking about all kinds of things, and we have stuff on our minds. So it’s not so simple. Do what you’re doing. Take care of the ingredients. Take care of the activity. Make it happen. And it’s up to you: No one can take your place. Mom will not show up to handle this for you. The cook is off today.
Edward Espe Brown, from the documentary How to Cook Your Life -
Any idiot can face a crisis; it’s this day-to-day living that wears you out.
Anton Chekhov (via silentsigh57)(via mymilkspilt)
Posted on December 18, 2011 via .la douleur exquise. with 612 notes
Source: misswallflower
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Let us forgive ourselves for writing poems that aren’t better than every other poem that has ever been written.
Dean Young, The Art of Recklessness: Poetry as Assertive Force and Contradiction (p. 3) -
If you stop chasing him, he’ll fall for you. Let him be his own dog.
A friend’s advice to her three-year-old about how to handle the new puppy in the house -
The Helio Sequence, “Lately”
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Free State Oatmeal Stout costs more than twice as much as a Rolling Rock ($3.50 vs. $1.50). Then again, I enjoy it more than twice as much.
I'm Emily. This is my online commonplace book. Email: bookishemily (at) yahoo. My other blog: Thrifted Sisters.
