green leaves / torn straight from the cross
- Agata Tuszyńska, Faith tr. Regina Grol
Nothing, however, can be more arrogant, though nothing is commoner than to assume that of Gods there is only one, and of religions none but the speaker’s.
- Virginia Woolf, Orlando
If I had a prayer, it would say, Let this not be a mirror to the past, nor a window to the future. Let each night be only itself.
- Heather Christle, The Crying Book
Raptures could be little or large, could come one after the other in a torrent, or singly and separated by long dullness. For him life was a constant drama of seeing and blindness, but, when seeing, the world would suddenly seem to him laden.
Niall Williams, History of the Rain
Come back. Tell us what you’ve seen. Tell us you met a god so reckless, so lonely, it will love us all.
—Traci Brimhall, from “Late Novena,” Our Lady of Ruins (W.W. Norton, 2012)
A great halo And a tightening in the throat
Dorota Chróścielewska, tr. Regina Grol
“Then when G-d asks [Cain], ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ he arrogantly responds, ‘I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?’ In essence, the entire Bible is written as an affirmative response to this question.”
— Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, Jewish Literacy (via levoneh)