Quotes from Deena Metzger

The gods come to us in the forms we recognize.

Beauty appears when something is completely and absolutely and openly itself.

Beauty appears when something is completely and absolutely and openly itself.

Without compassion, we will never know anyone or anything, not even our own story. Too much judgment, too many ideas and attitudes will stand in the way of the fundamental principle that we are similar to, connected with, and part of everything else.

Write against patterns. Go against the devils. Write what you never write. Lie. Validate what you don't validate. Indulge what you don't like. Wallow in it. Write the opposite of what you always write, think, speak. Do everything against the grain!

There are those who try to set Fire to the world We are in danger There is only time to move slowly There is no time not to love.

What must I say? What must I say? What must I say? What must I say? And finally, What must I say to you?

Some languages, unlike the Indo-European ones, do not separate subject and verb so that an action is never seen as distinct from the actor.

If the journal is the jumble of raw material—blood, bones, sinews—and a poem is the cell, the impulse, the story is the entire animal.

THE FIRST ROOTS CREEP UP I am learning to come upon the tree, slowly, to surprise it For the song its memorizing. The water runs up, the sap Runs down… I will carry water for you, if you ask me. If someone Asks me What differences between trees and me? Each is Beholden to rivers. each knows thirst. In those countries where trees walk, they go barefoot, singing madrigals… excerpt, Collected in: Sisters of the Earth: Women's Prose and Poetry About Nature by Lorraine Anderson

When we feel fear, we shrink away, but when we're excited we go toward. Let's go toward. Let's go farther. Let's invite the creative into ourselves.

Sometimes fear cannot be distinguised from excitement.

Some people fear seeing or feeling anything about which there is no general agreement. For others, it is thrilling to be aware of innuendo, shading, complexity.