Baxter Clare Trautman

“It’s like we have the bones of animals and the hearts of angels.”
― Baxter Clare Trautman, The River Within

“In your hands

The dog, the donkey, surely they know
They are alive.
Who would argue otherwise?

But now, after years of consideration,
I am getting beyond that.
What about the sunflowers? What about
The tulips, and the pines?

Listen, all you have to do is start and
There’ll be no stopping.
What about mountains? What about water
Slipping over rocks?

And speaking of stones, what about
The little ones you can
Hold in your hands, their heartbeats
So secret, so hidden it may take years

Before, finally, you hear them?”
― Mary Oliver, Swan: Poems and Prose Poems

“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero

“We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be.”
― May Sarton