self-portraits

Every man’s work, whether it be literature, or music, or pictures, or architecture, or anything else, is always a portrait of himself.

Samuel Butler

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Mahmoud Darwish, "The Earth Is Closing On Us"

The earth is closing on us, pushing us through the last passage, and we tear off our limbs to pass through. The earth is squeezing us. I wish we were its wheat so we could die and live again. I wish the earth was     our mother So she'd be kind to us. I wish we were pictures on the rocks for our dreams to carry As mirrors. We saw the faces of those to be killed by the last of us in the last defense of the soul. We cried over their children's feast. We saw the faces of those who'll throw our children Out of the windows of the last space. Our star will hang up in mirrors. Where should we go after the last frontiers? Where should the birds fly after the last sky? Where should the plants sleep after the last breath of air? We will write our names with scarlet steam. We will cut off the head of the song to be finished by our flesh. We will die here, here in the last passage. Here and here our blood will plant its olive tree. Mahmoud Darwish
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Louise Gluck, "Before the Storm"

 Rain tomorrow, but tonight the sky is clear, the stars shine. Still, the rain’s coming, maybe enough to drown the seeds. There’s a wind from the sea pushing the clouds; before you see them, you feel the wind. Better look at the fields now, see how they look before they’re flooded. A full moon.  Yesterday a sheep escaped into the woods, and not just any sheep—the ram, the whole future. If we see him again, we’ll see his bones. The grass shudders a little; maybe the wind passed through it.   And the new leaves of the olives shudder in the same way. Mice in the fields.  Where the fox hunts, tomorrow there’ll be blood in the grass. But the storm—the storm will wash it away. In one window, there’s a boy sitting. He’s been sent to bed—too early, in his opinion.  So he sits at the window— Everything is settled now. Where you are now is where you’ll sleep, where you’ll wake up in the morning. The mountain stands like a beacon, to remind the night that the earth exists,...
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