Repeat

Repetition
is important

in the training
not only of animals

but also of humans.

— Yann Martel, "Life of Pi"

Roar

A tiger
is a fascinating animal
at any time,
and all the more so
when it is
your sole companion.

— Yann Martel, "Life of Pi"

Hope

You might think
I lost all hope
at that point.

I did.

And as a result
I perked up
and felt much better.

— Yann Martel, "Life of Pi"

Repeat

Repetition
is important

in the training
not only of animals

but also of humans.

— Yann Martel, "Life of Pi"

Glass

She was young enough
not to see a glass as
half empty or half full,
but as a beautiful object
into which anything
might be poured.

— Alice Hoffman, "Skylight Confessions"

Thoughts

Clouds rolled in,
white and profoundly blue,
massed like great
intense thoughts
in a clear and joyfully
humming mental field.

— Mary Gaitskill, "The Bridge"
(Zoetrope: All-Story, Summer 2005)

Gone

After I read it —
"killed in action" —
and handed it back,
the whole damned English language
just flew away in the air
like a flock of blackbirds.

For a long time
neither one of us moved.
The daily sounds of the world
went on, sparrows in the barn lot,
somebody's bull way off,
the wind in the eaves,
but around us was
this awful, awful silence
that didn't have one word in it.

— Wendell Berry, "Stand By Me"
(Atlantic Fiction Issue 2008)