Ffion Dylan

“So at 12:31pm, when he decided not to-
when he came down, when the road opened-
I did, too, my whole world, my whole mind
went home with living proof
of what I'd only before known in theory:

that we are truly not alone in this,
that our veins are absolutely strings
tied to other people's kites,
that our lives are connected.
That my butterflies are never gone,

they're just flying around
in someone else's belly sometimes'.”
― Andrea Gibson, Lord of the Butterflies

“I suppose an active imagination can be a form of madness. Or it can be the thing that keeps you from going mad.”
― Esmé Raji Codell, Educating Esmé: Diary of a Teacher's First Year, Expanded Edition

“Sometimes I think, Why invent projects? What is the point? How will I ever accomplish what I set out to do, what I imagine? Then I think of the past, even before I was born, the great small feats people accomplished.
[...]
Those people had to work to accomplish those things, they thought of details, they followed through. Even if I come off as naive and zealous, even if I get on everyone's nerves, I have to follow these examples. Even if I fail, I have to try and try and try. It may be exhausting, but that is beside the point. The goal is not necessarily to succeed but to keep trying, to be the kind of person who has ideas and sees them through.”
― Esmé Raji Codell, Educating Esmé: Diary of a Teacher's First Year

“I wish you were here.
Autumn is the hardest season.
The leaves are all falling
and they’re falling like they’re falling in love with the ground
and the trees are naked and lonely.
I keep trying to tell them
new leaves will come around in the spring,
but you can’t tell trees those things,
they’re like me,
they just stand there
and don’t listen.

—Andrea Gibson, from “Photograph,” Pole Dancing To Gospel Hymns (Write Bloody Publishing, 2008)”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns