“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
“Most autumns, the water is low from the long dry summer, and you have to get out from time to time and wade, leading or dragging your boat through trickling shallows from one pool to the long channel-twisted pool below, hanging up occasionally on shuddering bars of quicksand, making six or eight miles in a day's lazy work, but if you go to the river at all, you tend not to mind. You are not in a hurry there; you learned long since not to be.” IfsMindLongWaterSixSummerLowsRiversEightMilesBarsBoatDryLazyAutumnPoolTwistedWadeQuicksandShuddering Book:Goodbye to a river: a narrative Source: Goodbye to a river: a narrative
“Twas a jolly old pedagogue, long ago, Tall and slender, and sallow and dry; His form was bent, and his gait was slow, His long thin hair was white as snow, But a wonderful twinkle shone in his eye. And he sang every night as he went to bed, "Let us be happy down here below: The living should live, though the dead be dead." Said the jolly old pedagogue long ago.” ShouldLongSaidEyeHappinessFormNightWhiteWonderfulHairBedSnowHis EyesDryTallEvery NightLong AgoBentSlenderJollyGait Author:George Arnold
“Sometimes there are more tears than laughter, and sometimes there is more laughter than tears, and sometimes you feel so choked you can neither weep nor laugh. For tears and laughter there will always be so long as there is human life. When our tear wells have run dry and the voice of laughter is silenced, the world will be truly dead.” WorldFeelsHumansWellsLongSometimesRunningVoiceLaughingTearsLaughterHuman LifeDry Book:Between Tears and Laughter Source: Between Tears and Laughter