In the end it is the reality of personal relationships that saves everything. ... All the good that you will do will not come from you, but from the fact that you have allowed yourself in the obedience of faith to be used by God's love.

– Thomas Merton

Build a good name. Keep your name clean. Don’t make compromises. Don’t worry about making a bunch of money or being successful. Be concerned with doing good work and make the right choices and protect your work. And if you build a good name, eventually that name will be its own currency.

— William S. Burroughs, via Patti Smith

Ah, Ah
      for Lurline McGregor

Ah, ah cries the crow arching toward the heavy sky over the marina.
Lands on the crown of the palm tree.

Ah, ah slaps the urgent cove of ocean swimming through the slips.
We carry canoes to the edge of the salt.

Ah, ah groans the crew with the weight, the winds cutting skin.
We claim our seats. Pelicans perch in the draft for fish.

Ah, ah beats our lungs and we are racing into the waves.
Though there are worlds below us and above us, we are straight ahead.

Ah, ah tattoos the engines of your plane against the sky—away from these waters.
Each paddle stroke follows the curve from reach to loss.

Ah, ah calls the sun from a fishing boat with a pale, yellow sail. We fly by
on our return, over the net of eternity thrown out for stars.

Ah, ah scrapes the hull of my soul. Ah, ah.

– Joy Harjo

In this world, we walk on the roof of hell
Gazing at flowers

– Kobayashi Issa

The hardest thing for me to accept was that my life was what it was everyday.

– Jim Harrison, from Everyday Life: The Question of Zen

They require shade and  covering, they require kneaded bread and wine and oil, and if any of  these things fails them, they perish; for us, on the other hand, any  grass or root serves as bread, the juice of any plant as oil, any water  as wine, any tree as a house. Furthermore, this region is familiar to us  and is our ally, but to them it is unknown and hostile. As for the  rivers, we swim them naked, whereas they do not across them easily even  with boats. Let us, therefore, go against them trusting boldly to good  fortune. Let us show them that they are hares and foxes trying to rule  over dogs and wolves.

-- Boadicea, as recorded by Dio Cassius in his Roman History