Question of the Day | 08/16/2009 11:00 pm

What passage or passages from a book, poem, short story or other literary work moved you so much that you've never forgotten it?

Join Liz Smith, Joan Ganz Cooney, Julia Reed and Joni Evans in sharing the words that have moved you.

Liz Smith | 08/16/2009 11:00 pm

Liz Smith: 'For the Last 40 Years, I Introduced My Column With a Quote'

There is so much in so many of the books I’ve read that I feel like a parent with many children trying to say something that I’m sure will make them feel loved equally. I have already given my embrace to the thousands of quotations I have selected to open my column for the past 40 years.

I like E. L. Doctorow on writing: "It’s like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights. But you can make the whole trip that way." This seems to me would apply to any long-term chore.

Or Raymond Chandler: "Technique alone is just an embroidered potholder."

Or William Faulkner: "We will be judged on the splendor of our failures."

Or Emily Dickinson: "The pedigree of honey dost not concern the bee; A clover, anytime, to him is aristocracy."

And then I have loved an anonymous limerick:

"There once was a man from St. Paul, who went to a fancy dressed ball. He said, ‘Yes, I’ll risk it. I’ll go as a biscuit.’ And a dog ate him up in the hall."

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Joni Evans | 08/16/2009 11:00 pm

Joni Evans's Life-Defining Quote

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." —Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

6 Comments

Joan Ganz Cooney | 08/16/2009 11:00 pm

Joan Ganz Cooney Rattled by Two Poets

There are many lines and passages from poems that rattle around in my brain. One of my favorites is from a poem written by Robert Lowell to Elizabeth Hardwick:

"You were in your 20s and I, once, hand on glass and heart in mouth, outdrank the Rahvs in the heat of Greenwich Village, too boiled and shy and poker faced to make a pass." And another, Dylan Thomas’s: "Do not go gentle into that good night but rage, rage against the dying of the light."

2 Comments

Julia Reed | 08/17/2009 9:00 am

Julia Reed and the Discovery of Leonard Cohen

I was an impossibly romantic 16-year-old (wishing I were going on 30) in boarding school, already tragically mourning lost loves when I discovered Leonard Cohen, whose photograph I had plastered to the dorm room ceiling above my bed. I still love his poem "Travel," and hear its lines in my head. "Loving you, flesh to flesh to flesh, I often thought of travelling penniless to some mud throne Where a master might instruct me how to plot My life away from pain, to love alone In the bruiseless embrace of stone and lake. Lost in the fields of your hair I was never lost Enough to lose a way I had to take … Now I know why many men have stopped and wept Halfway between the loves they leave and seek, And wondered if travel leads them anywhere – Horizons keep the soft line of your cheek, The windy sky’s a locket for your hair."

Then, of course, I was wishing someone was feeling that about me. Now I am old enough to have experienced the words from both sides. I am also happy to say that Leonard is still with us, still a hopeless romantic and I still have his picture (though no longer on my ceiling). Right now, I have James Taylor’s new version of Cohen’s "Suzanne" in the CD player in my car (I so love what Taylor does with those lyrics – just listen to him sing the word "China" as in tea – he’s just amazing) and now that I’ve gotten Cohen’s "Selected Poems" off my shelf to answer this post, I am walking down memory lane: Ah, "the mortal ring of flesh on flesh in dark."

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When I was a kid (9yrs old) my Madrinha (godmother) wrote in my very first autograph book and I have never forgotten it and have passed it on many times. I tried to live by it and used it to teach my own children. =c)

Look not for beauty , nor whiteness of skin,

But look for a heart that is true within.

For beauty may fade, and skin grow old,

But a heart that is true will never grow cold.

By Elizabeth Adams on 08/17/2009 2:03 pm

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"Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt". ~William Shakespeare~

By Wendy R on 08/17/2009 2:04 pm

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I love the following quote and try my best to live by it. "I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel" Maya Angelou. I have this posted on the wall in my office at the High School that where I work.

By Sandie Fitzpatrick on 08/17/2009 2:05 pm

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Are You Loving Enough ~Ella Wheeler Wilcox~

Are you loving enough? There is some one dear,
Some one you hold as the dearest of all
In the holiest shrine of your heart.
Are you making it known? Is the truth of it clear
To the one you love? If death’s quick call
Should suddenly tear you apart,
Leaving no time for a long farewell,
Would you feel you had nothing to tell—-

By Jeanette DeGiulio on 08/17/2009 2:28 pm

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In the early 90s I read the little paperback book Jacob the Baker by Noah benShea. I read, that is, until a line kidnapped me and held me hostage for several minutes before I could move on. "Jacob was a reed, and the breath of God blew threw Jacob, made music of him."

OH!

BenShea’s words impregnated my consciousness and illuminated my heart’s desire. So much so that they open my latest book, Don’t Miss Your Life! An Uncommon Guide to Living with Freedom, Laughter and Grace.

By Charlene Baumbich on 08/17/2009 3:40 pm

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Two quotes were particularly meaningful to me this year:

By Rumi :

"Everything you see has it’s roots in the unseen world.

The forms may change, yet the essence remains the same.

Every wonderful sight will vanish, every sweet word will fade.

But do not be disheartened.

The source they come from is eternal, growing, branching out, giving new life and new joy.

Why do you weep?

The source is within you, and this whole world is springing up from it."

And by Dr. Seuss:

"Be who you are and say what you feel.

Those who mind don’t matter,

And those who matter don’t mind."

Words to live by!!!

By Peg O my heart on 08/17/2009 4:02 pm

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Rainer Maria Rilke: "Ist es nicht Zeit, dass wir uns liebend vom Geliebten befrein"……..?

Sorry, I don’t know the translation……

By Frau Quink on 08/17/2009 4:07 pm

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When I read The Agony and the Ecstasy, many years ago, the following was written, (With the birth of a child comes the message from God that he is not yet displeased with us.) I enjoyed the whole book, but this has always stuck in my mind. I have a policy to never read a book twice because there are so many books that I will never be able to finish in my lifetime so I keep reading new ones.

By Patricia Sullivan on 08/17/2009 4:14 pm

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there are a few lines that i have never forgotten, one is from the bridges of Madison county…"this kind of certainty only happens once…" i memorized Bobby Kennedy’s quote of Aezchylus…" In our sleep,pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our own will,comes wisdom through the awful grace of God"

By jacq c on 08/17/2009 4:18 pm

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jacq c - Thank you for sharing your favorite passages with us on wOw.

By Patricia Sprofera on 08/24/2009 4:15 pm

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The following passage always moves me when I read it. I love the condensation of an act or thought that sums up an entire thing—in this case the New Testament. There are many translations for John 1:14, but the King James Version has the most poetic introduction of Jesus:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth.

By Lena B on 08/17/2009 4:24 pm

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Lena B

Amen !

By L. C. on 08/17/2009 8:34 pm

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Parts of two poems come to my mind. I learned them both when I was a teenager and to this day, they encourage and inspire me. From Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,Black as the pit from pole to pole

I thank whatever gods may be. For my unconquerable soul …

I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.

The second by RObert Frost still moves me mightily

Two roads diverged in the woods and I

I took the one less traveled by

And that has made all of the difference.

By Laurel Kyles on 08/17/2009 4:28 pm

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This is my favourite quote and also great words of wisdom to live by…."if there is a solution for a problem, no point in being overwhelmed and worrying and if there is no solution for a problem, no point in being overwhelmed and worrying…the dalai lama

By Leslie Calvert on 08/17/2009 5:03 pm

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I’d like to say the most memorable quote from a book for me is from Harper Lee’s (To Kill A Mocking Bird). "Remember it’s a sin to kill a mocking bird. Mocking bird’s don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy…but sing their hearts out for us." Of course the literary interpretation was in reference to the character Boo Radley and the unjust death of Tom Robinson; both of whom were harmless. One of my very favorite books!

By Peggy Ivey on 08/17/2009 5:13 pm