I hate endings. Just detest them. Beginnings are definitely the most exciting, middles are perplexing and endings are a disaster.
The temptation towards resolution, towards wrapping up the package, seems to me a terrible trap. Why not be more honest with the moment? The most authentic endings are the ones which are already revolving towards another beginning. That’s genius.
– Sam Shepard
Where is what I started for,
and why is it yet unfound?
– Walt Whitman
Believe me I am not being modest
when I admit my life doesn’t bear repeating.
I agreed to be the poet
of one life, one death alone.
– C.D. Wright
This should be the spirit every Monday. Know that something good will always happen.
– Gabriel García Márquez
Chiho’s Calligraphy
(for Chiho Kaneko)
Chiho brushed for me
three Chinese characters.
She sent them to me in the mail.
I have her calligraphy framed on the wall
in my room above my little homemade
altar where I sit every day.
The characters from top to bottom say:
Shu, which means keep or obey,
as in obey the teacher.
The second one is ha, which means
break, rebel, try things out, other than
what the teacher said.
The third one is ri, which means
depart on your own path,
go your own way.
– David Budbill, Happy Life