When Just a Boy

When just a boy, I loved two things
Two things appealed to me
One was heaven filled with stars
The other was the sea.

I could find the stars each night
Each night they came to me
And if they were obscured by clouds
I'd just wait patiently.

But the sea was hours away
And hours I could not give.
So I imagined more than I saw
So that my love could live.

Travel

Travel makes you realize just how many people there are in the world who are completely unaware of all the things that trouble you the most.

Review: Asking All The Wrong Questions

"Devising a test of literary merit is not actually that hard. Here it is: Would you read the thing again?"

Marjorie Garber's The Use and Abuse of Literature: Why does she ask all the wrong questions? - By William Deresiewicz - Slate Magazine

Berryman

"he said the great presence
that permitted everything and transmuted it
in poetry was passion
passion was genius and he praised movement and invention

I had hardly begun to read
I asked how can you ever be sure
that what you write is really
any good at all and he said you can't

you can't you can never be sure
you die without knowing
whether anything you wrote was any good
if you have to be sure don't write"

Berryman by W. S. Merwin | The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor