"Since I was a small child I've felt that little inamimate things were very wise, that they had their own kind of wisdom, something to teach me if I would only pay the right kind of attention to them...
I don't look at anything as being insignificant. I think that's another overlooked gift of poetry. Many times people image that poets wait for splendid experience to overtake them, but I thing the tiniest moments are the most splendid."
{Naomi Shibad Nye}
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[Now let no charitable hope]
Now let no charitable hope
Confuse my mind with images
Of eagle and antelope:
I am in nature none of these.
I was, being human, born alone;
I am, being woman; hard beset;
I live by squeezing from a stone
The little nourishment I get.
I masks outrageous and austere
The years go by in single file;
But none has merited my fear,
And none has quite escape my smile.
{Elinor wylie (1885-1928)}
