At the National Museum of Singapore (open hse - free entry till 4th Jan)

You Reading This, Be Ready
by William Stafford

Starting here, what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
sound from outside fills the air?

Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
for time to show you some better thoughts?

When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. This interval you spent
reading or hearing this, keep it for life –

What can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?

***

"According to the novelist John Gardner, there are just two kinds of stories in literature: you go on a journey, or a stranger arrives in your world."

Christmas 1963

by Joseph Enzweiler

Because we wanted much that year
and had little. Because the winter phone
for days stayed silent that would call
our father back to work, and he
kept silent too with our mother,
fearfully proud before us.

Because I was young that morning
in gray light untouched on the rug
and our gifts were so few, propped
along the furniture, for a second
my heart fell, then saw how large
they made the spaces between them

to take the place of less. Because
the curtained sun rose brightly
on our discarded paper and the things
themselves, these forty years,
have grown too small to see, the emptiness
measured out remains the gift,

fills the whole room now, that whole year
out across the snowy lawn. Because
a drop of shame burned quietly
in the province of love. Because
we had little that year
and were given much.

One should never direct people towards happiness, because happiness too is an idol of the market-place. One should direct them towards mutual affection. A beast gnawing at its prey can be happy too, but only human beings can feel affection for each other, and this is the highest achievement they can aspire to

- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

There are many aspects of culture that are extralingual – that is, they exist outside or in spite of language: kinship, legal systems, governance, history, personal identity. But there is very little that is “extralingual” about story, about language itself. I think what I am trying to say is that we will lose beauty – the beauty of the particular, the beauty of the past and the intricacies of a language tailored for our space in the world. - "A language too beautiful to lose" by David Treuer

Have I mentioned I just love Spill Canvas?

From one of their songs, Lullaby:

If you need anything,
Just say the word, I mean anything.
Rest assured, if you start to doze
Then I'll tuck you in,
Plant my lips where your necklace is closed.

While you were sleeping,
I figured out everything:
I was constructed for you,
And you were moulded for me.

I don't know what I can say that will do justice to how good they are.
They're up there with Bright eyes (more for the lyrics than his voice) and Death Cab For Cutie, in my regard.

***

"The world seems like a bunch of different movies running at the same time. There are romance movies and sad movies, and if you pay attention most of their stories start to get all mixed together, till there's no way you can go on telling them to yourself."

Dominique Fabre from THE WAITRESS WAS NEW

(from jonathan carroll's blog)