Calvino and Hana's Selections

Islands
by Muriel Rukeyser

O for God's sake
they are connected
underneath

They look at each other
across the glittering sea
some keep a low profile

Some are cliffs
The Bathers think
islands are separate like them

* * *

The Way It Is
by William Stafford

There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change.  But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.
 

* * *

Choose Life
by Andre Breton (fragment)

Choose life with its conspiratorial sheets
Its scars from escapes
Chose life choose that rose window on my tomb
The life of being here nothing but being here
Where one voice says Are you there
where another answers Are you there
I'm hardly here at all alas