to kill a mocking bird

8/12
Post to writing blog if time…………

I read another book that people say is good…here are phrases I liked…
To kill a mockingbird (harper lee) 08-12-08
The misery of that house
According to neighborhood legend
)other ways) of making people into ghosts
Sense of responsibility (left him)
Persons of no background
Immune to imaginative literature
One does not love breathing
I seldom pleased her and she seldom rewarded me
Are we poor?
“you never really understand a person until you consider things from him point of view”
Of the common folk
Development of good citizenship
Best defense to her was a spirited offense
“the things that happen to people we never really know.”
Nobody in maycomb just went for a walk
I watched the spark of fresh adventure leave his eyes
Arouse the admiration of anyone
Some skill involved in being a girl
I wanted you to see what real courage is
With him, life was routine, without him, life was unbearable
“maddening air of wisdom”
(bitter sweet) “smell of clean negro”
“it’s the same god, ain’t it?”
“impurity of women doctrine”
“I don’t have a real birthday.”
“it’s not necessary to tell all you know”
“you’re not gonna change any of them by talking right, they’ve got to want to learn themselves”
One must lie under certain circumstances and at all times when one can’t do anything about them.
Instill any pride into his children
“I’m trying to tell you the facts of life.”
“run-of-the-mill people”
It takes a woman to do that kind of work.
“It’s different with grown folks.”
“From rape, to riot, to runaways.”
“fake peace that prevailed”
It is one gesture of affection.
Things were utterly dull
Cabin look like the “playhouse of an insane child”
That made him any better than his nearest neighbors
In your own words…
People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.
Never, never, never on cross examination ask a question you already know the answer to.
“has she got good sense?”
Took offense at routine courtesy
“if you was a nigger like me”
“it helps folks if they can latch onto a reason”
“taking delight in corrupting a child”
“I ain’t ever seen any jury “decide in favor of a colored man” over a white man.”
“And when they do it—seems that only children weep.”
“tellin’ the truth is not cynical is it?”
“Things are never as bad as they seem.”
“called on to be christians”
There’s something in our world that makes men lose their heads
Pleasant to declare oneself
But they’re not our kind of folks
Tired of white man’s churches
Making you feel right when things went wrong
People in maycomb knew each other’s voices.

Some tin-foil as sticking in the knot-hole just above my level, winking at me in the afternoon sun.
“yes sir, a clown. There ain’t one thing in this world I can do about folks except laugh, so I’m gonna join the circus and laugh my head off.”

Coconut starfield

Coconut starfield
My sandles have molded to my feet
Walking through night shadows
I see the outline of coconut
Tree above
Like a silent friend, or until it drops
One on my head. Wide leaves hiding
The field (above).

Far above, stars peek out through
Darkness; blanket of white pricks
Surrounding blackness.

Too many to count.
A few shooting to places unknown.
All together a beauty city dwellers
Seldom see.
Lucky me.

Mataio 4/23/08

Sun magazine dec2007

The Sun magazine dec2007


Marriage has always seemed [im]possible to me
For I paid the price for believing
Steps along the path toward acceptance led to
Presence between the words facing my
Argument with reality.
When we let our guard down
Reality rushes into the cracks.
Not much is written about
Trying to hold on to it…the best way to lose it
Ask, what am I, really?
The most important thing in your [my] life
Is routine.
Attitude and attention assist with
finding out about life.
[when were you most unafraid of your actions]?
When I acted on truth alone
Do they like me? Who cares.
This is the serious task of personal inquiry
Your good sense is vital always.
Death is like that
Anger comeing from wholeness
Able to express that perspective.
What is that?
Well functioning egos are nicer to be around
When we’re all awake I was made
Into a passable adult
What was interesting? It is that
All writers are essentially travel writers
Everything was [is] potentially interesting and
Because he saw this, I had a chance to become it.
How close the poor student often is to doing good work
Between the selves.
Authoring everything.
Show me the art of teaching.
Find vulnerable aliveness.
Teaching is giving errands
Long and necessary silence between them.
Remembering to never touch the wizard
Something fascinating in the details.
Asking juicy questions in
Times like this.
Hip young pastors,
Burn with the love of Jesus Christ.
The idea of Jesus
As only an English teacher.
Recognizing this to be the voice of God
While waiting for the whiskey to kick in
Without trying to figure out,
How to find [the] nectar,
Being left behind shows
What it really means to be married.
Become less prone to bickering.
Wanda’s Asian beauty,
Seemed less tormented.
Punishing nauseating rounds of chemotherapy [really sucked].
Making plans, living life in the end.
Feeling there is nothing so final as a corpse in your midst.
The pain and hilarity of it all
I remember my resistance to love.
Trying to learn how to love,
To love others as though we are all dying all the time.
Having children opens your heart.
Only the love between two people can show
Whatever mystery had brought him to us helped us
Get ready to say goodbye.
Receiving help instead of giving it is different
When I’m courting my own husband and
Feeling attractive by youthful standards.
She has similar grace and courage in
Her hope chest.
Dance just enough to make the morning feel like a celebration because
It is just automatic, a fact of life.
Formenting a revolution of my own
Substitutes for living fully in the present.
Well, if that’s what you want;
Life in its particulars.
What is fundamentally mysterious shadows
Pespective of the observer
Living ordinary human life amplifies
Every loss.
I am a bride married to amazement.