CLXXII

“I saw him under my closed eyelids like an imprint from the sun” - Ariel Levy

[Image: Stella Maxwell for Grazia UK]

CLXXI

Soft
And brave
That's what a woman is to me.
Soft
In the way that spiderwebs are strong.
Soft
As the close grip of a woman can only be
Of a mother, or a sister, or a friend
A sure hand clinging gently
Steadying soundly
Whispering sweetly
Roaring loudly. A woman
is all those things to me.

Brave
Is a difficult word
Being something you cannot see
But I've seen tempers
Rise and fall
I've seen buildings
Rise and fall
I've seen
Dead men
Rise
And fall
While a woman stands still, serene.
Something pure
About the bravery I've seen.
Soft
And brave
That's what a woman is to me

And I am her
And she is me


[Image: Michaela Kocianova for ELLE Czech]

CLXX

To hold in my hands completely duplicitous possibilities is to know, I think, a little more the mind of God. To think that anything is possible is to think that two radically opposing possibilities are equally available to me, in this moment. To wait for both, or either, or neither to appear. 

CLXIX

Men go forth to wonder at the heights of mountains,
the huge waves of the sea,
the broad flow of the rivers,
the vast compass of the ocean,
the courses of the stars,
and they pass by themselves without wondering.

- St. Augustine