Author Archives: Drunken Librarian

Hilary Scheppers is a writer, artist, and poet. California | Minnesota | Colorado | New York

Insomnia – Linda Pastan

I remember when my body

was a friend,

when sleep like a good dog

came when summoned.

The door to the future

had not started to shut,

and lying on my back

between cold sheets

did not feel

like a rehearsal.

Now what light is left

comes up—a stain in the east,

and sleep, reluctant

as a busy doctor,

gives me a little

of its time.

from The Virginia Quarterly Review

“In the Book of the Disappearing Book” – John Gallagher

It’s a spring flowered dress that was her effacement.

On a train, and because of what windows do sometimes.

Her face is floating above the landscape

unaware.

I used to think that I was reporting my life to someone.

I was a radio.

I used to think things happening was unfolding.

The trees are blooming all through her

and there’s no one to tell.

And the discipline of roads.

The icy discipline of to and from.

In the air of nothing, I used to think

I was understanding distance.

Green God, in your language of silences, tell me.

(Courtesy of LIT)

That country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and midnights stay. That country composed in the main of cellars, sub-cellars, coalbins, closets, attics, and pantries faced away from the sun. That country whose people are autumn people, thinking only autumn thoughts. Whose people passing at night on the empty walks sound like rain.

Ray Bradbury, The October Country (via bookmania)

bookpickings:

Artist to Artist: 23 Major Illustrators Talk to Children About Their Art

Eric Carle

“No story is worth the writing, no picture worth the making, if it’s not the work of the imagination.”

Maurice Sendak, Eric Carle, Quentin Blake, Alice Provensen, and other beloved illustrators give children advice on becoming an artist