Riva Razdan

“I want to write something
so simply
about love
or about pain
that even
as you are reading
you feel it
and as you read
you keep feeling it
and though it be my story
it will be common,
though it be singular
it will be known to you
so that by the end
you will think—
no, you will realize—
that it was all the while
yourself arranging the words,
that it was all the time
words that you yourself,
out of your heart
had been saying.”
― Mary Oliver, Evidence: Poems

“Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.

Let me keep company always with those who say
"Look!" and laugh in astonishment,
and bow their heads.”
― Mary Oliver, Evidence: Poems

“No, I'd never been to this country
before. No, I didn't know where the roads
would lead me. No, I didn't intend to
turn back.”
― Mary Oliver, Evidence: Poems

“How odd I can have all this inside me and to you it’s just words.”
― David Foster Wallace, The Pale King