Neverland

"On these magic shores children at play are for ever beaching their coracles. We too have been there; we can still hear the sound of the surf, though we shall land no more."

-Peter Pan

Sir James Matthew Barrie

We Are.

we are the music makers,
we are the dreamers of the dream.
wandering by lone sea breakers,
and sitting by desolate streams.
world losers and world forsakers,
for whom the pale moon gleams.
yet we are movers and shakers of the world
forever it seems.

~Arthur O'Shaughnessy

Starlight

"Stars flashed to like in some too-close distance. They burned her up for a few brief heartbeats."

~Melissa Marr, Ink Exchange

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Mended

"-Sometimes I fear--What will the Bishop say when he hears? One of his priests? 

-What can a Bishop say? Something is happening that no Bishop can stop. Who can stop these things from happening? They must go on.

-How can you say so? How can you say they must go on? 

-They must go on, said Msimangu gravely. You cannot stop the world from going on. My friend, I am a Christian. It is not in my heart to hate a white man. It was a white man who brought my father out of darkness. But you will pardon me if I talk frankly to you. The tragedy is not that things are broken. The tragedy is that they are not mended again. The white man has broken the tribe. And it is my belief--and again I ask your pardon--that it cannot be mended again. But the house that is broken, and the man that falls apart when the house is broken, these are the tragic things. That is why children break the law, and old white people are robbed and beaten. 

He passed his hand across his brow.

-It suited white man to break the tribe, he continued gravely. But it has not suited him to build something in the place of what is broken. I have pondered this for many hours, and I must speak it, for it is the truth for me. They are not all so. There are some white men who give their lives to build what is broken.

-But they are not enough, he said. They are afraid, that is the truth. It is fear that rules this land."

-Cry, the Beloved Country

Alan Paton

Eyes

"Happy the eyes that can close."

-Cry, the Beloved Country

Alan Paton

Grass

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"The grass is rich and matted, you cannot see the soil. It holds the rain and the mist, and they seep into the ground, feeding the streams in every kloof. It is well-tended, and not too many cattle feed upon it; not too many fires burn it, laying bare the soil. Stand unshod upon it, for the ground is holy, being even as it came from the Creator. Keep it, guard it, care for it, for it keeps men, guards men, cares for men. Destroy it and man is destroyed."

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"Where you stand the grass is rich and matted, you cannot see the soil. But the rich green hills break down. They fall to the valley below, and falling, change their nature. For they grow red and bare; they cannot hold the rain and mist, and the streams are dry in the kloofs. Too many cattle feed upon the grass, and too many fires have burned it. Stand shod upon it, for it is coarse and sharp, and the stones cut under the feet. It is not kept, or guarded, or cared for, it no longer keeps men, guards men, cares for men. The titihoya does not cry here any more."

"The great red hills stand desolate, and the earth has torn away like flesh. The lightning flashes over them, the clouds pour down upon them, the dead streams come to life, full of the red blood of the earth. Down in the valleys women scratch the soil that is left, and the maize hardly reaches the height of a man. They are valleys of old men and old women, of mothers and children. The man are away, the young men and the girls are away. The soil cannot keep them any more."

-Cry, the Beloved Country

Alan Paton

Hills

"There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. 

These hills are grass-covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it."

-Cry, the Beloved Country

Alan Paton