In All His Costumes

Käthe Kollwitz, ‘Sleeping Mother’

To be alive at all is to have scars.

~ Steinbeck

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As a poet I hold the most archaic values on earth. They go back to the upper Paleolithic: the fertility of the soil, the magic of animals, the power-vision in solitude, the terrifying initiation and rebirth, the love and ecstasy of the dance, the common work of the tribe. I try to hold both history and wilderness in mind, that my poems may approach the true measure of things and stand against the unbalance and ignorance of our times.

~ Gary Snyder

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God changes his appearance every second.

Blessed is the man who can recognize him in all his costumes

~ Nikos Kazantzakis

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Look at the stars…

it won’t fix the economy,

it won’t stop wars,

or help you figure out your relationship.

But it’s important to look, to stare,

to help you remember that you and your problems

are both infinitesimally small and conversely,

that you are a piece of an amazing

and vast universe.