In his poem “Binsey Poplars (felled 1879),” Gerard Manley Hopkins writes of that set of chopped-down trees, “After-comers cannot guess the beauty been.”
“But sometimes family gets their minds stuck on what a person is, and they won’t let it go. She’s taken a piece of Islington, formed a picture as to his character, and run with it all the way to America.”
― The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 5
― The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 5
“Then came the march past the victims. The two men were no longer alive. Their tongues were hanging out, swollen and bluish. But the third rope was still moving: the child, too light, was still breathing...
And so he remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death, writhing before our eyes.
And we were forced to look at him at close range. He was still alive when I passed him. His tongue was still red, his eyes not yet extinguished.
Behind me, I heard the same man asking:
"For God's sake, where is God?"
And from within me, I heard a voice answer:
"Where He is? This is where--hanging here from this gallows..."
That night, the soup tasted of corpses.”
― Night
And so he remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death, writhing before our eyes.
And we were forced to look at him at close range. He was still alive when I passed him. His tongue was still red, his eyes not yet extinguished.
Behind me, I heard the same man asking:
"For God's sake, where is God?"
And from within me, I heard a voice answer:
"Where He is? This is where--hanging here from this gallows..."
That night, the soup tasted of corpses.”
― Night
“It’s messier than we ever imagined it to be as children,” he said. “What?” “Life.”
― The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 3
― The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 3
“I hadn’t realised until that moment how much I’ve missed that feeling, of someone inside your four walls watching out for you. The feeling that home isn’t just a place, but also people. I’ve forgotten it could be.”
― The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 3
― The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 3
“We cannot always predict the outcomes of our actions, Miss Lion, however well intended.” I stood. “What else is life but a string of outcomes beyond our control?”
― The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 3
― The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 3
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