Literary Lines ~ Women’s History Month

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”Persuasion”, Jane Austen, Literary Lines, Women's History Month

I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.

 

Literary Lines ~ Women’s History Month

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”Ode To Fearless Women”, Literary Lines, Nikita Gill, Poetry, Women's History Month

Literary Lines Black History Month

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Alice Walker, Black History Month, Literary Lines, The Color Purple

I am an expression of the divine, just like a peach is, just like a fish is. I have a right to be this way…I can’t apologize for that, nor can I change it, nor do I want to…We will never have to be other than who we are in order to be successful…We realize that we are as ourselves unlimited and our experiences valid. It is for the rest of the world to recognize this, if they choose.

~ Alice Walker, The Color Purple ~

Literary Lines ~ Black History Month

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Black History Month, Caged Bird, Literary Lines, Maya Angelou, Poetry, Shaker Why Don’t You Sing?

Photograph courtesy of https://fragglerocks.smugmug.com

Caged Bird

A free bird leaps

on the back of the wind

and floats downstream

till the current ends

and dips his wing

in the orange sun rays

and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks

down his narrow cage

can seldom see through

his bars of rage

his wings are clipped and

his feet are tied

so he opens his throat to sing.

 

 

The caged bird sings

with a fearful trill

of things unknown

but longed for still

and his tune is heard

on the distant hill

for the caged bird

sings of freedom.

 

The free bird thinks of another breeze

and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees

and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn

and he names the sky his own.

 

But a caged bird stands on a grave of dreams

his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream

his wings are clipped and his feet are tied

so he opens his throat to sing.

 

 

The caged bird sings

with a fearful trill

of things unknown

but longed for still

and his tune is heard

on the distant hill

for the caged bird

sings of freedom.

Literary Lines

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Brave New Family, G.K. Chesterton, Literary Lines

Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home.

~ G.K. Chesterton, Brave New Family ~

Literary Lines

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“A Familiar Rain”, John Geddes, Literary Lines

 

December’s wintery breath is already clouding the pond, frosting the pane, obscuring summer’s memory…

~ John Geddes, A Familiar Rain ~

Literary Lines

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Literary Lines, Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union

It never takes longer than a few minutes, when they get together, for everyone to revert to the state of nature, like a party marooned by a shipwreck. That’s what a family is. Also the storm at sea, the ship, and the unknown shore. And the hats and the whiskey stills that you make out of bamboo and coconuts. And the fire that you light to keep away the beasts.

~ Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union ~

Literary Lines

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”The Haunting of Hill House”, Literary Lines, Shirley Jackson

No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House and whatever walked there, walked alone.

~ Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House ~

Literary Lines

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”Spinster”, Google Doodle, Literary Lines, Poetry, Sophie Diao, Sylvia Plath

Today’s Google Doodle honors acclaimed yet tortured writer Sylvia Plath, who if she had lived, would have turned 87 years-old today. Plath battled severe depression before tragically taking her own life in 1963. The stunning artwork by Sophie Diao is a reference to Plath’s 1956 poem Spinster.

Literary Lines

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Edgar Allan Poe, Literary Lines, The Premature Burial

The boundaries which divide life from death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins.

~ Edgar Allan Poe, The Premature Burial ~