“Homesickness is a great teacher. It taught me, during an endless rainy fall, that I came from the arid lands, and like where I came from. I was used to dry clarity and sharpness in the air. I was used to horizons that either lifted into jagged ranges or rimmed the geometrical circle of the flat world. I was used to seeing a long way. I was used to earth colors--tan, rusty red, toned white--and the endless green of Iowa offended me. I was used to a sun that came up over mountains and went down behind other mountains. I missed the color and smell of sagebrush, and the sight of bare ground.” WorldWayLongEarthUsedFallWhiteBehindsSunTeacherSeeingAirLandTaughtColorMountainRedSightGreenSmellCirclesEndlessClarityRangeDryFlatsHorizonOffendedLong WayRainyGreat TeacherIowaHomesicknessSharpness Author:Wallace Stegner
“Russian forests crash down under the axe, billions of trees are dying, the habitations of animals and birds are laid waste, rivers grow shallow and dry up, marvelous landscapes are disappearing forever.... Man is endowed with creativity in order to multiply that which has been given him; he has not created, but destroyed. There are fewer and fewer forests, rivers are drying up, wildlife has become extinct, the climate is ruined, and the earth is becoming ever poorer and uglier.” MenHas BeensEarthOrderGivenGrowsAnimalCreativityForeverTreeDyingBecomingWasteBirdRiversClimateDisappearBillionsForestsDestroyedLandscapeDryFewerCrashMarvelousShallowRuinedWildlifeDry Up Author:Anton Chekhov
“I read not so long ago about the construction of a large telescope in Chile's Atacama Desert, where rainfall can average a millimetre a year and the air is fifty times as dry as the air in Death Valley. Needless to say, skies over the Atacama are pristine. The pilgrim astronomer ventures to the earth's ravaged reaches in order to peer more keenly at other worlds, and I suppose the novelist is up to something similar.” WorldYearsLongEarthOrderAirSkyAverageDesertNovelistsDryFiftyValleysConstructionLong AgoPeersVentureOther WorldsPilgrimTelescopesAstronomersChilePristineRainfall Author:Brad Leithauser
“Prayer is the ascending vapor which supplies The showers of blessing, and the stream that flows Through earth's dry places, till on every side "The wilderness shall blossom as the rose.” EarthSidesPrayerBlessingFlowRoseStreamsDryWildernessShowersSuppliesVaporAscending Author:A. B. Simpson
“I'm beginning to feel that the real endangered species on planet earth are not the whales and the elephants but those of us who can laugh at the world and ourselves. ... I fear the dry turn of the American mind, this focus on the literal, as much as I fear our capacity for self-destruction. We've become hagridden by facts, obsessed with product instead of process. Where's the energetic wit, the looney outlook, the frivolity, the lightness of comforting laughter? It has become fashionable to know and unfashionable to feel, and you can't really laugh if you can't feel.” IfsKnowsWorldFeelsMindRealSelfFactsFeelingsHumorEarthTurnsProcessLaughingFocusPlanetsProductsLaughterCapacityDestructionSpeciesWitObsessedDryElephantsOutlookComfortingFashionableLiteralWhalesEnergeticPlanet EarthSelf DestructionLightnessFrivolityEndangered Species Author:Rita Mae Brown
“My family dumplings are sleek and seductive, yet stout and masculine. They taste of meat, yet of flour. They are wet, yet they are dry. They have weight, but they are light. Airy, yet substantial. Earth, air, fire, water; velvet and elastic! Meat, wheat and magic! They are our family glory!” LightEarthWaterFireMagicAirFoodTasteGloryMy FamilyWeightCookingOur FamilyMeatDryCulinaryWetMasculineWheatSeductiveVelvetAiryFlourStoutDumplings Author:Robert P. T. Coffin
“Since, by your greatness, you Are nearer heaven in place; be nearer it In goodness: rich men should transcend the poor, As clouds the earth; rais'd by the comfort of The sun, to water dry and barren grounds.” MenShouldEarthHeavenWaterPoorSunRichGreatnessComfortGoodnessCloudsDryBarrenRich Man Author:Cyril Tourneur