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Quote by Staceyann Chin

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Crossfire: A Litany for Survival

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Staceyann Chin
Staceyann Chin

Staceyann Chin, born on December 25, 1972, is a talented poet whose work is known for its deep personal experiences and focus on social issues. more

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“Every day, saline was pumped through his body to clean out his pleura and scar tissue. A chest tube was connected to a drainage system, producing a trickle of water. The pain was enormous. Bergoglio didn’t care for the usual platitudes that people kept telling him, things like “This will pass” or “Won’t it be nice when you’re back home?” But one visitor broke away from the clichés and truly comforted him. It was a nun whom he had remembered ever since she had prepared him to receive his First Communion, Sister Dolores. “She said something that truly stuck with me and made me feel at peace. ‘You are imitating Christ,’” he recalled.”

PainSufferingPope FrancisImitation Of Christ
Book:Pope Francis: Conversations with Jorge Bergoglio: His Life in His Own Words
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“Our only health is the disease If we obey the dying nurse Whose constant care is not to please But to remind of our, and Adam's curse, And that, to be restored, our sickness must grow worse. The whole earth is our hospital Endowed by the ruined millionaire, Wherein, if we do well, we shall Die of the absolute paternal care That will not leave us, but prevents us everywhere. The chill ascends from feet to knees, The fever sings in mental wires. If to be warmed, then I must freeze And quake in frigid purgatorial fires Of which the flame is roses, and the smoke is briars. - (from 'East Coker')”

SufferingIllnessHospitalsMortalityOriginal Sin
Book:Four Quartets
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“People who read much must always keep it in mind that life is one thing, literature another. Not that authors invariably lie. I declare that there are writers who rarely and most reluctantly lie. But one must know how to read, and that isn't easy. Out of a hundred book-readers ninety-nine have no idea what they are reading about. It is a common belief, for example, that any writer who sings of suffering must be ready at all times to open his arms to the weary and heavy-laden. This is what his readers feel when they read his books. Then when they approach him with their woes, and find that he runs away without looking back at them, they are filled with indignation and talk of the discrepancy between word and deed. Whereas the fact is, the singer has more than enough woes of his own, and he sings them because he can't get rid of them. L'uccello canto, nella gabbia, non di gioia ma di rabbia, says the Italian proverb: "The bird sings in the cage, not from joy but from rage." It is impossible to love sufferers, particularly hopeless sufferers, and whoever says otherwise is a deliberate liar.”

WritingSufferingReading
Book:All Things are Possible
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