In the first state, one hurtles from pain; in the second one experiences it; one bears it up. Is this when suicide occurs, when one has been so whittled by what must be borne that the undercarriage collapses and oblivion is the only
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“some things are drawn to water and behave differently when they are near it.”
― To the River: A Journey Beneath the Surface
― To the River: A Journey Beneath the Surface
“What is real to me is the power of our awareness when we are focused on something beyond ourselves. It is a shaft of light shining in a dark corner. Our ability to shift our perceptions and seek creative alternatives to the conondrums of modernity is in direct proportion to our empathy. Can we imagine, witness, and ultimately feel the suffering of another?”
― Finding Beauty in a Broken World
― Finding Beauty in a Broken World
“VI. FINAL WARNING There are monsters in these pages, but as Ogden Nash pointed out in my first short-story collection, Smoke and Mirrors, where there’s a monster, there’s also a miracle. There are some long stories and some short ones. There are a handful of poems, which perhaps might need their own warning for the people who are frightened, disturbed, or terminally puzzled by poetry. (In my second short-story collection, Fragile Things, I tried to explain that the poems come free. They are bonuses for the kind of people who do not need to worry about sneaky and occasional poems lurking inside their short-story collections.) There. Consider yourself warned. There are so many little triggers out there, being squeezed in the darkness even as I write this. This book is correctly labeled. Now all we have to worry about is all the other books, and, of course, life, which is huge and complicated and will not warn you before it hurts you. Thank you for coming. Enjoy the things that never happened. Secure your own mask again after you read these stories, but do not forget to help others.”
― Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances
― Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances
Alton High School
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— last activity Oct 29, 2011 08:38PM
This is a professional forum for teachers to discuss important books and to disseminate information that will impact student learning. We hope you wil ...more
Rio Book Club
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— last activity Jul 26, 2020 10:48AM
This is space for us to explore texts and our reaction to those texts, to name emerging questions and insights, and to think about the implications. L ...more
Rio Readers
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— last activity Sep 25, 2023 12:28PM
Join in discussions of professional reading and/or your favorite beach reads here.
CP4 Writing About Literature
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— last activity Jan 03, 2015 05:52AM
This will be a space to continue and and amplify our classroom discussions of literature. I envision it also serving as invention space for the vario ...more
Jeff’s 2024 Year in Books
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