“Independent travel does that, bringing temporarily together these wandering ships that would otherwise pass in the night. Relationships were mostly brief and sometimes downright fleeting. The barriers and masks of settled existence melted away, allowing strangers to become fast friends, if only for a day. We travellers needed that, having deliberately stepped away from the social safety net of family, school, work and community.” IfsDoeSometimesSchoolTogetherNightSocialCommunityExistenceNeededIndependentSafetyStrangerShipsWanderMaskBarriersAllowingFleetingTravellerSafety NetSchool Work Author:John Haines
“To live by a large river is to be kept in the heart of things.” HeartWaterRiversEnvironmentalLive ByRivers And Water Author:John Haines
“I faced in myself a passionate and tenacious longing--to put away thought forever, and all the trouble it brings, all but the nearest desire, direct and searching. To take the trail and not look back..Let the rest of mankind find me if it could.” IfsLooksDesireForeverTroubleMankindDirectLongingPassionateTrailsFind MeTenacious Author:John Haines
“The physical domain of the country had its counterpart in me. The trails I made led outward into the hills and swamps, but they led inward also. And from the study of things underfoot, and from reading and thinking, came a kind of exploration, myself and the land. In time the two became one in my mind. With the gathering force of an essential thing realizing itself out of early ground, I faced in myself a passionate and tenacious longing--- to put away thought forever, and all the trouble it brings, all but the nearest desire, direct and searching.” ThinkingMindKindMadeTwoCountryDesireReadingForceRealizingForeverStudyTroubleLandEssentialsDirectLongingPassionateHillsExplorationInwardGatheringTrailsDomainSwampsCounterpartsTenacious Author:John Haines
“Cabbages, whose heads, tightly folded see and hear nothing of this world, dreaming only on the yellow and green magnificence that is hardening within them.” WorldDreamThis WorldFoodGreenCookingCulinaryYellowMagnificenceCabbage Book:The Owl in the Mask of the Dreamer: Collected Poems Source: The Owl in the Mask of the Dreamer: Collected Poems
“I need to concede a considerable area to what I don't know and can't know, and perhaps don't wish to know. Only to understand in a way I do not quite understand.” KnowsWayNeedsWishAreas Author:John Haines