Kevin McManus > Quotes

“February does not arrive as a cure. It arrives as a change in the angle of things. The days lengthen, yes, but the cold remains, stubborn as a habit. The return of light is not the same as the return of ease. Sometimes it’s harder, even, because you begin to notice what you have been enduring without complaint. In January you endure because there’s nothing else to do. In February, you begin to ask what you’ve been living with.”
― Kevin McManus, Brigid’s Month: February : Poetry and Prose for the Return of the Light

“I make tea and sit down, and for a long time I do nothing else. I watch the steam rise. I watch the light through the window. I watch the slow movement of cloud outside, the way the day seems to shift its weight hour by hour. I let the table hold me. There is a kind of bravery in sitting still. We like to believe that survival is about action—about doing, enduring, pushing through. But sometimes survival is about being willing to stay with what you feel long enough for it to change shape. To sit at a table and let the day arrive without forcing it. To allow thoughts to come and go without chasing them.”
― Kevin McManus, Brigid’s Month: February : Poetry and Prose for the Return of the Light