Sept. 15th, 2016. In honor of this anniversary, I offer a few quotes from the writings of many of my favorite authors. The first is from a quote by the great poet Arthur Rimbaud: “You must learn to let go. You will not get where you are today by being where you are not.
This one’s from Richard Bach. The quote, “Be still and know that you are alive,” is a classic from a poet I love. A few years back I attended a reading of his poetry at an art gallery in Oakland. The night before, we were sitting on a couch in a small but beautiful room, surrounded by art. In between readings, I was singing Bach’s “The Well-Tempered Clavier.
This one is from a poem by the great poet John Donne. I heard him read it last night. He was talking about how we should be more aware of our own mortality and how we need to stop judging people who have already passed through the gates of mortality. We’re better to know that we’re mortal and to let go, because we’re better to let go.
I was reading this poem and I thought, “Wow, if we really knew what’s coming, we would probably die.” So, in that moment, I realized that we are all, in one way or another, mortal. We just need to stop being so stubborn and say, “I am mortal.” We just need to remember that we are all, in one way or another, mortal.
The poem is written by philosopher and poet, John Donne. One of the most famous lines is “the only thing I know is I am not mortal.” This is something we all hear constantly in our own lives. I know I’m a little older than most of you, but I still hear it from time to time.
I love this poem for so many reasons. One is the fact that I feel like I can always relate to the line, “I am mortal.” Because that is something I hear from time to time. But I also think it is a way for us to think through the fact that we are all, in one way or another, mortal. For example, once I was in a car crash and I was sitting in the driver’s seat.
Another reason I love this poem so much is because the author, Charles Simonyi, was a poet himself. He is a writer and professor of creative writing at the University of Colorado. He was a very prolific writer, and I have always loved his style because it is so unique. Not only that, but I love the connection he made between the death of his friend and the fact that he never got to see him again.
That’s the same thing I said about the death of your friend. In the same way that we all tend to miss people we love, we all tend to miss people we didn’t see again. The main difference being that I know my friend is alive and well and that I can’t seem to see the grief that is now killing my friend.
I guess that’s true for all of us. For me it’s similar to the way I think about my loved ones, I miss them but I can’t seem to find them. It’s like I can’t seem to see that I am missing them or what they are doing without the right lens.
