Beth Swanson

“Why I Wake Early

Hello, sun in my face.

Hello, you who made the morning

and spread it over the fields

and into the faces of the tulips

and the nodding morning glories,

and into the windows of, even, the

miserable and the crotchety –



best preacher that ever was,

dear star, that just happens

to be where you are in the universe

to keep us from ever-darkness,

to ease us with warm touching,

to hold us in the great hands of light –

good morning, good morning, good morning.



Watch, now, how I start the day

in happiness, in kindness.”
― Mary Oliver

“As a middle-aged man, he’d found books to be less about hope and more about finding the discrepancies between what fiction had promised and reality delivered.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Library of Borrowed Hearts

“If they’re gonna insist we be segregated from the rest of the world, least they can do is take care of us.”
― Amanda Skenandore, The Second Life of Mirielle West

“Gather as much knowledge as you can, because information is power. And choosing how to use it is freedom. The more you know, the freer you will be.”
― Kirsten Miller, Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books