Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"Below the sea of clouds lies eternity"



From Wind, Sand and Stars published by Penguin Books1973

cloud verse

"Clouds, that surround us like a ring of white-
Gowned nuns, their vigil gentled by the wind,
Grow taller with each mile so as to hide
The blueness underneath their spreading arms.
Their habits greying with the ageing day."


 The second verse of a poem entitled 'July Journey',
from The Desecration of Trees, by Lotte Kramer.
Published by Hippopotamus Press, Frome, Somerset, 1994.

clouds and balloons

" The single clouds hanging like balloons."



Roger Deakin   Notes From Walnut Tree Farm Hamish Hamilton Penguin Group 2008

afraid

"'Why are you afraid?' I asked myself, because fear is at the bottom of everything, even love usually rests on fear. 'Why are you afraid, when whatever you do you will die anyway?'"


Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson. Published by Fourth Estate, Great Britain 2004.

the inner voice

"If you hear a voice within,

you cannot paint

then by all means paint,
and that voice will be silent".


Vincent van Gogh.


 

cloud quotation

"When I do not walk in the clouds
I walk as though I were lost."


Antonio Porchina  Voces 1943

Translated from the Spanish by W S   Merwin.

a gift from another

"Whatever keeps you from your work becomes your work"


Carolyn Forche, American poet.

This quotation was sent to me in an email from another American poet, Sheila Packa, whose work I had admired, and commented upon.

Samuel Beckett

"To be an artist is to fail, as no other dare fail....failure is his world..."


from Three Dialogues by Samuel Beckett and Georges Duthuit,  p 21 Samuel Beckett A Collection of Critical Essays edited by Martin Esslin. Published by Prentice Hall, 1965.