Karen

“Maybe the truth is that saying goodbye seems to me a rejection of human warmth - even the minimal warmth that makes us feel solitude less. I mean real solitude, which rises up by surprise and lasts a few seconds, the solitude that derives not from lack of company or affection, but from our innate separateness from one another.”
― Elena Ferrante; translated by Ann Goldstein, Incidental Inventions

“Sirius Sojourn by Stewart Stafford

Cottage in an aromatic meadow,
Summer's languid haze hanging,
The old windmill's sundial stilled,
Chirping birds and insect drones.

Flowing brooks at a funereal pace,
A bloated lull duels exiguous energy,
Thick air's blanketing somnolence,
Liquid refreshment soothes inertia.

Salmon sundown slithers to a siesta,
In a clear purple sky nodding assent,
The intense day imperceptibly eased,
As the night's humid embrace begins.

© Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“He leaned his head against the dark iron gate, and Evangeline would forever remember the way he looked just then.

He was still indescribably breathtaking, but it was all the tragic beauty of a sky where every single star was falling. His hair was a storm of broken gold. HIs eyes were a mess of silver and blue. The deadness she'd seen her first night in Valorfell was gone, but now she understood why it had been there, why he seemed so unable to give comfort or kindness. The girl who was supposed to be his one true love had literally stabbed him in the heart.”
― Stephanie Garber, Once Upon a Broken Heart

“Some momentary touches of my fire
Have warmed the barren ages with a beam:
There is no peak beyond my swift desire,
There is no beauty deeper than my dream.”
― Edwin Markham, Lincoln & other poems