han

“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.”
― Mary Oliver

“fierce unyielding winds
pressing pushing
against window glass
trees swaying
branches falling
chaos warning
of danger
she does not want
to cut them down
she does not want
to fear those mighty oaks
standing guard
for more years
than can be counted
strong roots sustaining life
holding back
the rush of time
let earth testify
they have the
right to fall
when life comes to an end
to move
in harmony with fate”
― bell hooks, Appalachian Elegy: Poetry and Place

“We must have hope in the face of all that is going on, because without it, we will die. We will watch and do nothing while healthcare goes away, while education becomes utterly substandard, while families are ripped apart through deportation and bans, and while safety nets are snatched from the disabled and poor. We will watch and do nothing while this administration commits more and more outrageous injustices and leads us to war and annihilation.”
― Alice Wong, Resistance and Hope: Essays by Disabled People