“The woman is not just a pleasure, nor even a problem. She is a meniscus that allows the absolute to have a shape, that lets him skate however briefly on the mystery, her presence luminous on the ordinary and the grand. Like the odor at night in Pittsburgh’s empty streets after summer rain on maples and sycamore.” ProblemNightPleasureMysteryStreetsShapesSummerOrdinaryRainEmptyAbsolutesLuminousSkatesOdorPittsburghMapleSummer RainEmpty Streets Book:The Dance Most of All: Poems Source: The Dance Most of All: Poems
“Angels, living light most glorious! Beneath the Godhead in burning desire in the darkness and mystery of creation you look on the eye of your God never taking your fill: What glorious pleasures take shape within you!” LooksLightEyeDesirePleasureDarknessMysteryCreationShapesAngelBurningGloriousWithin YouBurning Desire Author:Hildegard of Bingen
“I think when a man first discovers that two and two is four, there is 'beauty' in that; and we can see why. But if people stand and look at the moon and one says 'I think it's just beautiful tonight' and the other says 'The moon makes me feel awful' we are both 'clear'. A geometric shape - we know why we like it; and an unreasonable shape; it has a certain mystery that we recognize as real; but it is difficult to put these things in an objective way.” PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsMenWayFeelsFirstsLooksTwoRealBeautifulCertainDifficultClearFourMysteryShapesMoonObjectivesAwfulTonightUnreasonableGeometricGeometric Shapes Author:William Baziotes
“To allow mystery, which is to say to yourself, 'There could be more...things we don't understand,' is not to damn knowledge....It is to permit yourself an extraordinary, freedom: someone else does not have to be wrong in order that you might be right...This tolerance for mystery invigorates the imagination; and it is the imagination that gives shape to the universe.” GivingDoeMightOrderUniverseImaginationMysteryShapesExtraordinaryToleranceDamnPermitMight Is Right Author:Barry Lopez
“This creature is the Pooka. Pay no mind to the shape he wears, for he’s none of his own, and no soul either. Ware him ever, trust him never, but when the wind’s right he has his uses. Never forget that you will never know him. The Pooka’s mystery even to the Pooka.” KnowsMindSoulUseForgetPayMysteryWindShapesCreaturesNever Forget Author:Peter S. Beagle
“Human minds are more full of mysteries than any written book and more changeable than the cloud shapes in the air.” MindHumansBookWrittenAirMysteryShapesCloudsHuman Mind Book:Abbot's Ghost: A Christmas Story Source: Abbot's Ghost: A Christmas Story
“It's an honor and privilege to be next to the great mysteries, and that's what I get to do every day. Why are we here? How beautiful the Earth is. Whatever it is, large and small. There's so much that's beautiful and moving and sad, to experience that and find shapes for it, to deeply enter that meditative space. There's nothing like it. Everything else seems so pale.” SeemsEarthBeautifulMovingNextSpaceMysteryHonorShapesPrivilegePale Author:Carole Maso