The Quoatables - Episode 1

Stuff that I've read recently that I found interesting...

In the other, the sunken life,
in the world of green feedings,
all the leaves say yes, meadows
of curved stems say yes and warmth
flows from the depth of this yes
out toward horizons where hills
are still transparent and the ground
white with drippings from the moon.
Waking from this memory of green,
we'll face the skirmish of each day,
with hostages retrieved from the night.
This time will be different, new patterns
for the feet, wings for the eye,
rhythms for the heart, and our names
everywhere like grass.
-Ruth Daigon, "All The Leaves Say Yes"

"Anne walked home very slowly in the moonlight. The evening had changed something for her. Life held a different meaning, a deeper purpose. On the surface it would go on just the same; but the deeps had been stirred. It must not be with her as with poor butterfly Ruby. When she came to the end of one life it must not be to face the next with the shrinking terror of something wholly different--something for which accustomed thought and ideal and aspiration had unfitted her. The little things of life, sweet and excellent in their place, must not be the things lived for; the highest must be sought and followed; the life of heaven must be begun here on earth."
-from Anne of the Island, by L. M. Montgomery

"Always one for immaculate scientific technique, Leeuwenhoek proceeded to acquire some of his own semen for comparison. He made sure not to collect the sample through sinful self-abuse, but rather during the act of making love to his wife. In order to obtain the freshest possible sample, Leeuwenhoek reported in a letter to the Royal Society in England, he jumped up, collected the specimen, popped it into the microscope, and inspected in 'immediately after ejaculation, before six heartbeats had passed.'
"We can only imagine what Leeuwenhoek's wife thought of her place in history."
-from How Life Begins - The Science of Life in the Womb, by Christopher Vaughan

"So when 250 million sperm (about the same number as there are people in the United States) blast into the female genital tract at the rate of 200 inches per second (10 miles an hour), they begin an ancient journey like that of some aboriginal tribe wandering across the tundra. The attrition rate of this march is enormous: so many frail, crippled, and simply lost sperm drop away that most often only a few dozen ever reach the egg."
-also from How Life Begins

"Heart must be the hardier, courage the keener,
Spirit the greater, as our strength lessens."
--The Battle of Maldon

"Wordsworth talked about poetry as being 'a spontaneous overflow of emotion recollected in tranquility.' Young poets too often emphasize the 'overflow' rather than the 'recollection.' Recollection implies a disciplinary process that is essential when composing love poetry." -- Ruth Daigon

"Outside the door I am aware of the darkness and the wind as a deliverance. I breathe as deep as I can, and feel the breeze in my face, warm and soft as never before. Thoughts of girls, of flowery meadows, of white clouds suddenly come into my head. My feet begin to move forward in my boots, I go quicker, I run. Soldiers pass by me, I hear their voices without understanding. The earth is streaming with forces which pour into me through the soles of my feet. The night crackles electrically, the front thunders like a concert of drums. My limbs move supplely, I feel my joints strong, I breathe the air deeply. The night lives, I live. I feel a hunger, greater than comes from the belly alone."
-from All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

"In England you get a lot more action for your money. In the first place, in order to read the directions for operating the telephone, you have to stand on your head in the telephone booth, because the card of instructions had been thoughtfully placed about two feet from the floor. This would be easier for some types of customers than Mrs. Appleyard. For instance, an India-rubber woman would probably be good at it, or a pygmy, or a very small bushwoman from Australia. If they could read, of course. Perhaps the telephone company doesn't really expect colonials to read. Probably, like Oxford and Cambridge, it believes in the tutorial system."
-from Mrs. Appleyard's Year by Louise Andrews Kent, 1941. The humor in this book is right up my ally and amuses me to no end. :D