Mark Underwood

“What matters is the transformative power of metaphor and the stories we tell ourselves about the arc and meaning of our lives.”
― Natasha Trethewey, Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
― Mary Oliver

“The whispers of shared ecstasy are choral.”
― George Steiner, Grammars of Creation

“Man would not be man if his dreams did not exceed his grasp. ... Like John Donne, man lies in a close prison, yet it is dear to him. Like Donne's, his thoughts at times overleap the sun and pace beyond the body. If I term humanity a slime mold organism it is because our present environment suggest it. If I remember the sunflower forest it is because from its hidden reaches man arose. The green world is his sacred center. In moments of sanity he must still seek refuge there. ... If I dream by contrast of the eventual drift of the star voyagers through the dilated time of the universe, it is because I have seen thistledown off to new worlds and am at heart a voyager who, in this modern time, still yearns for the lost country of his birth.”
― Loren Eiseley, The Invisible Pyramid