Love, I think, is a gateway to the world, not an escape from it.

No such thing, the queen said, as too many sequins.

We long to connect; we fear that if we do, our freedom and individuality will disappear.

What did you think, that joy / was some slight thing?

I've been moving a little to the music while I worked ...and then I realize I am actually dancing. It feels wonderful, though I can feel how stiff my muscles are, how rigidly I've been holding myself...Mostly I've been moving cautiously, numbly, steeled because I know, at any moment, I may be ambushed by overwhelming grief. You never know when it's coming, the word or gesture or bit of memory that dissolved you entirely...It happens every day at first, then not for a day or two, then there's a week when grief washes in every morning, every afternoon.

And then we ease him out of that worn-out body with a kiss, and he's gone like a whisper, the easiest breath.

...in the face of all dangers, in what may seem a godless region, we move forward through the agencies of love and art.