“We crossed this river then and pulled away, and in the empty fields the lark still spilled praise.”
― To the River: A Journey Beneath the Surface
― To the River: A Journey Beneath the Surface
“Geir gave me the chance to look at life and understand it, Linda gave me the chance to live it. In the first instance I became visible to myself, in the second I vanished. That’s the difference between friendship and love.”
― My Struggle: Book 6
― My Struggle: Book 6
“what I didn’t know, or rather had absolutely no conception of, was that every step I took was defining me, every person I encountered leaving their mark on me, and that the life I was living at that particular time, boundlessly arbitrary as it seemed, was in fact my life. That one day I would look back on my life, and this would be what I looked back on. What then had been insignificant, as weightless as air, a series of events dissolving in exactly the same way as the darkness dissolved in the mornings, would twenty years on seem laden with destiny and fate.”
― My Struggle: Book 6
― My Struggle: Book 6
“In a certain mood, the earth itself can seem a ouija board, calling out its advice, discharging symbol after symbol, relentless and malevolent, though to ordinary eyes nothing more has happened than a single back and white bird winging down the sky.”
― To the River: A Journey Beneath the Surface
― To the River: A Journey Beneath the Surface
“You Reading This, Be Ready
Starting here, what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
sound from outside fills the air?
Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
for time to show you some better thoughts?
When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. This interval you spent
reading or hearing this, keep it for life—
Whatever can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?”
― Ask Me: 100 Essential Poems of William Stafford
Starting here, what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
sound from outside fills the air?
Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
for time to show you some better thoughts?
When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. This interval you spent
reading or hearing this, keep it for life—
Whatever can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?”
― Ask Me: 100 Essential Poems of William Stafford
Lori’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Lori’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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