From whiskey river:
The rest I have told you already
The rest I have told you already.
A few years of fluency, and then
the long silence, like the silence in the valley
before the mountains send back
your own voice changed to the voice of nature.
This silence is my companion now.
I ask: of what did my soul die?
and the silence answersif your soul died, whose life
are you living and
when did you become that person?
(by Louise Glück)
And (not from whiskey river):
Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.
(by Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet)
And finally, just for a change, something of an answer:
My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it’s on your plate — that’s my philosophy.
(by Thornton Wilder, The Skin of Our Teeth — one of my all-time favorite plays to read)
marta says
I’ve nothing clever or pithy to say. I’m pacing the internet. I not only have a deer in the headlights look, but I’ve got a deer waiting to be shot fit.
But I do like these quotes from whiskey river. You find some great things out in internet land.
John says
Oh, crack me up why dontcha. You’ll be more than fine. ALWAYS a good place to start: a super-smart, super-respectful reader who already knows your work. :)
Hardest thing about all those great things online is deciding which you can afford to revisit. If you’re not careful, you end up spending 6+ hours a day doing nothing but surfing and commenting. Not that I personally know anybody like this.
eisha says
Ha! I love the “answer” – very refreshing after all that question-angst. Seriously, too, I love the poem. That phrase “before the mountains send back / your own voice changed to the voice of nature” gets me.
marta says
Just to share–Shelly did not hate my story.
John says
@eisha – No doubt there are exceptions, but my first instinct on encountering someone who doesn’t like Thornton Wilder’s plays is to cock and eyebrow, twirl a little finger in an ear, and go, “Eh?”
(I seem to remember a Bill Cosby routine whose tagline was, “Ice cream — we’re gonna get ice cream!”…)
John says
@marta – Had a feeling he wouldn’t… I’m so glad — thanks for letting me know!