Bryce Townsend

“Awareness is essential but
can be
brutal as well.

How do you hear the music through the desperate voices?
How do you immerse yourself in beauty
always knowing the knives are out?
How?
How?

Greater awareness.
Greater still.
Awareness of the choice.”
― Shellen Lubin

“As onerous as certain long-winded tasks are,
the key seems to always be the same--
just keep going,
just keep going,
one foot in front of the other,
one bag of garbage filled and out and then the next,
one box of important things carefully packed and sealed
and then another,
more, more,
just keep going,
one foot in front of
the other.

And then look what you've got:
a new home, a new life,
a new play, a production,
something you've knitted from fragments of dreams and ideas,
something you've woven from yarns and memories,
something you've written from yarns and images.

One foot more.”
― Shellen Lubin

“It's always been a choice--
every weapon a tool,
every tool a weapon,
every banana slip a joke,
every song a scream
of fear, pain, or pleasure,
every flower a perfume, a ballet,
a color splash
grown from the soil of both
harvest and destruction.

It's always been a choice.
Whether the direction you choose is foggy
or clear.
Where do you look? What
do you look at? What
do you hear?”
― Shellen Lubin

“Oh, how we need MLK Day right now--
need MLK--his vision, his words,
his feistiness--
not the way he's painted by the centrists
(no less the right),
but the way he stood up for what was necessary
to make America live up to its ideals
(yes, he was imperfect
yes, bits of hypocrisy and misogyny,
and yet mostly brilliance and caring and
extraordinary efforts on behalf of all Americans
because we are all deprived of justice and equity
if any of us are).”
― Shellen Lubin