Alis Volat Propris

I laugh because the other option is to cry. And I am sick of crying. It's a mad, sad world full of hilariousness and beauty. This moment in time is ridiculous and powerful and so I laugh. I laugh hysterically at myself, this world. I laugh until I cry.

-

They will break your heart.
Let them.
You will think you've reached your lowest.
You haven't.
You will think nothing worse can happen.
It can (and will).
You will cry.
You will scream until the dawn.
You will surprise yourself with your strength.
You will be stronger,
laugh louder,
live brighter,
love deeper.
You will love life because it is tragic.
And because it is beautiful.

Let them break you.

-

The most powerful thing
I have ever known
Is love
Which just so happens
To be everything

It seems as if all I do
Out of love
Becomes trouble
These days

It seems as if all I touch
Gently and true
Crumbles as
Castles of sand do

I’ve come to know
Good intentions
Are subjected to such
That all they do
Is bring heartbreak
And not amount to much

I ponder and wonder
How much more I can blunder
There’s no self-pity here
Just pure amazement
That everything I feel
Could be meaningful
Has torn me into pieces

And so I continue forth
Feeling certain this all will pass
That things shall be as they need to
I’ll come forth more myself
Then I’ve ever known

But until then, and even
Sometimes quite often
There is a sinking ship
In my stomach
That reminds me
Just how broken I really am

-

Two-Volume Novel
(Dorothy Parker)

The sun's gone dim, and
The moon's turned black;
For I loved him, and
He didn't love back.

-

In Blackwater Woods
(Mary Oliver)

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars

of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,

the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders

of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is

nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned

in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side

is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world

you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.


-


in time of daffodils
(e.e. cummings)

in time of daffodils(who know
the goal of living is to grow)
forgetting why,remember how

in time of lilacs who proclaim
the aim of waking is to dream,
remember so(forgetting seem)

in time of roses(who amaze
our now and here with paradise)
forgetting if,remember yes

in time of all sweet things beyond
whatever mind may comprehend,
remember seek(forgetting find)

and in a mystery to be
(when time from time shall set us free)
forgetting me,remember me

-

What new loves, new ecstasies, new impulses move you now? ...

I have taken you into myself, whole. You need have no fear of being unmasked, only loved.