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Nessa McCasey

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https://www.goodreads.com/poetnessa

Nessa’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (134)
currently-reading‎ (5)

read‎ (157)
did-not-finish‎ (0)

non-fiction‎ (2)
poetry‎ (0)

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Nessa is Currently Reading

Nessa McCasey is currently reading

Goodbye Parkinson's, Hello life!: The Gyro–Kinetic Method for Eliminating Symptoms and Reclaiming Your Good Health

by Alex Kerten

bookshelves: non-fiction, currently-reading

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Jan 02, 2021 08:46PM

Nessa McCasey is currently reading

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

by Robin Wall Kimmerer

bookshelves: non-fiction, currently-reading

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Jan 02, 2021 08:44PM

Nessa McCasey is currently reading

The Book of Secret Wisdom: The Prophetic Record of Human Destiny and Evolution

by Zinovya Dushkova (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

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May 12, 2020 08:47AM

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Nessa’s Quotes

“Persimmons are not born soft,"
"But they are valued for their softness."
"Their ripeness.”
― Yiyun Li

tags: persimmons

2 likes

“My work with the poor and the incarcerated has persuaded me that the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice.”
― Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption

59 likes

“Nabokov once answered a question he must have been tired of being asked: "My private tragedy, which cannot, indeed should not, be anybody's concern, is that I had to abandon my natural language." That something is called a tragedy, however, means it is no longer personal. One weeps out of private pain, but only when the audience swarms in to claim understanding and empathy do they call it tragedy. One's grief belongs to oneself; one's tragedy, to others.”
― Yiyun Li, Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life

tags: grief, pain, tragedy, weeps

3 likes

“The weak-minded choose to hate," she said. "It's the least painful thing to do, isn't it?”
― Yiyun Li, Gold Boy, Emerald Girl

tags: hate

3 likes

“Once in a while I get an email from someone I have met briefly. "You may not remember me," these emails often begin, the hope to be remembered expressed by the acceptance of having already been forgotten.”
― Yiyun Li, Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life

tags: forgotten, remember

8 likes

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Nessa’s Groups

Justice and Spirit: Unitarian Universalist Book Club — 633 members — last activity Sep 01, 2026 05:09AM
Life never stops sending new spiritual challenges our way. How do we, as individuals and communities, search for truth and meaning, strive for justice ...more

Unitarian Universalists — 178 members — last activity Sep 27, 2018 02:42AM
A discussion group for Unitarian Universalists, UU friends, and people interested in Unitarian Universalism. (For more about Unitarian Universalism, v ...more

Constant Reader — 6055 members — last activity 1 hour, 10 min ago
A forum for friendly discussion of classics, literary fiction, nonfiction, poetry and short stories. We also love movies and art. Don't ask to join th ...more

¡ POETRY ! — 22500 members — last activity Aug 31, 2026 04:34PM
No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read it!) Goodreads honors wordsmiths: poets and poetry promoted and prompted here. ~~~ "Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits." -- Carl Sandburg “God has a brown voice, as soft and full as beer.” —Anne Sexton On Clouds – “…what primitive tastes the ancients must have had if their poets were inspired by those absurd, untidy clumps of mist, idiotically jostling one another about…” —Yevgeny Zamyatin “If the poet wants to be a poet, the poet must force the poet to revise. If the poet doesn’t wish to revise, let the poet abandon poetry and take up stamp-collecting or real estate.” —Donald Hall “Poetry is a rich, full-bodied whistle, cracked ice crunching in pails, the night that numbs the leaf, the duel of two nightingales, the sweet pea that has run wild, Creation’s tears in shoulder blades.” —Boris Pasternak “Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket.” —Charles Simic “Language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity.” —Gustave Flaubert “Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does.” —Allen Ginsberg. ~~~~~ Amy King, Moderator Amy King is the recipient of the 2015 Winner of the WNBA Award (Women’s National Book Association). Her latest collection, The Missing Museum, is a winner of the 2015 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prize. She serves on the executive board of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and is co-editing with Heidi Lynn Staples the anthology, Big Energy Poets of the Anthropocene: When Ecopoets Think Climate Change. She is also co-editing the anthology, Bettering American Poetry 2015, and is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at SUNY Nassau Community College. ...more