herto QUOTES

1 " From Orient Point

The art of living isn't hard to muster:
Enjoy the hour, not what it might portend.
When someone makes you promises, don't trust her

unless they're in the here and now, and just her
willing largesse free-handed to a friend.
The art of living isn't hard to muster:

groom the old dog, her coat gets back its luster;
take brisk walks so you're hungry at the end.
When someone makes you promises, don't trust her

to know she can afford what they will cost her
to keep until they're kept. Till then, pretend
the art of living isn't hard to muster.

Cooking, eating and drinking are a cluster
of pleasures. Next time, don't go round the bend
when someone makes you promises. Don't trust her

past where you'd trust yourself, and don't adjust her
words to mean more to you than she'd intend.
The art of living isn't hard to muster.

You never had her, so you haven't lost her
like spare house keys. Whatever she opens,
when someone makes you promises, don't. Trust your
art; go on living: that's not hard to muster. "

― Marilyn Hacker

2 " She seems to always get it
To have become adept at empathy
Always giving excuses for people who’ve aggrieved her
To the point it’s hard for her to hit back when necessary
All because she assumes she ‘understands’
Then, one day . . .
She finally stands up for herself
At that moment, she revels in the natural instinct of self-preservation
She realises all this while the power she’s been withholding
In a transcendent moment of epiphany
It’s all beautiful ‘cause
Now, she can get back to empathy with understanding, rather, than without. "

― Ufuoma Apoki

3 " Peter," she began. He looked up at her, and she could see the pain in his eyes. " I love you," she said freely. With Peter, she was laid bare; he extracted her from herself.Peter didn't know what to say. HIs eyes glimmered, bright and burning. He only let her see them a moment before he turned away. He took a ragged breath." What were you doing with Rose anyway" she demanded, asking a lot of him.Peter darkened again. He turned his back to her, took a step farther into the alley, and said in a dead voice, " I don't have to like herto get what I want." " I don't believe you," Valerie said, reaching for his face, again. Peter pulled away from her. " You're lying. "

4 " I only thought
Of lying quiet there where I was thrown
Like sea-weed on the rocks, and suffer her
To prick me to a pattern with her pin,
Fibre from fibre, delicate leaf from leaf,
And dry out from my drowned anatomy
The last sea-salt left in me. "

― Elizabeth Barrett Browning