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1 " I am not ready to die,But I am learning to trust deathAs I have trusted life.I am movingToward a new freedom "
― May Sarton , Selected Poems
2 " Where joy in an old pencil is not absurd. "
3 " So let the world go, but hold fast to joy. "
4 " But tears are an indulgence. Memory sings. "
5 " And now we who are writing women and strange monstersStill search our hearts to find the difficult answers,Still hope that we may learn to lay our handsMore gently and more subtly on the burning sands. "
6 " There are some griefs so loudThey could bring down the sky,And there are griefs so stillNone knows how deep they lie,Endured, never expended.There are old griefs so proudThey never speak a word;They never can be mended.And these nourish the willAnd keep it iron-hard. "
7 " ...The means of choice:She might choose to ascendThe falling dream,By some angelic power without a nameReverse the motion, plunge into upwardness,Know height without an end,Density melt to air, silence yield a voice--Within her fall she felt the pull of Grace. "
8 " A bolt that raised her heart to blazing heightAnd made the vertical the very thrust of hope,And found its path at last(Slow work of Grace). "
9 " ...when the petals fallSay it is beautiful and good, say it is well "
10 " It is time I came back to my real lifeAfter this voyage to an island with no name,Where I lay down at sunrise drunk with light. "
11 " It is not so much trying to keep aliveAs trying to keep from blowing apartFrom inner explosions every day. "
12 " What we have not has made us what we are.Those surface consolations have to go. "
13 " It is alarming to feel the soulLeap to the surface and find no sheltering wall. "
14 " Fighting dragons is my holy joy. "
15 " What does myself now say to me?"Open the door of Mystery. "
16 " For only the ill are well,Only the hunted, free "
17 " I felt pain like an assault,The old pain againWhen the world thrusts itself inside,When we have to take in the outside,When we have to decideTo be the crazy-human with hopeOr just plain crazyWith fear. "
18 " It feels a long way up and down from zero. "