John Geddes

“....you were a jumble of broken bits of glass the sun caught and stained my soul with your colors....”

“...when you enter a room, my wound opens, but there is light, always light, when you come in...”

“...Use your finger to trace the scar upon my chest- I lied - it wasn't a knife wound, but a scrape from a nail sliding under a fence to see you...”

“...who is the hunchback in my comic opera, but me? I'm crippled on the inside and unable to make the gestures of love...”

“...some people won't even own a dog for fear it will die - you can't bubble-wrap your heart...”

“...some people are incapable of love - they have calloused souls...”

“...you either forgive a lover for abandoning you or you forgive God for taking them - either way you have to forgive...”

“...there's the suffering from love and the suffering from grief - either pain permanently scars the soul...”

“...we see this tendency to throw off restraints in life, in art - it's an inglorious gesture of thumbing the nose - it makes me laugh...”

“...freedom of conscience does not mean being uncontrolled - we have to control ourselves and at times submit to others...”

“...wherever there is society, there is authority and the temptation to disobedience because our individual wills refuse to submit...”

“...a writer without authority? Impossible. as Kenneth Burke says, creation implies authority in the sense of originator....”

“...if you're an actor, and you've thought your way into the part, then you're character portrayal will have authority...”

“...if you're an artist, you've submitted to authority...”

“...people quote proverbs without realizing they're really in awe of the authority of their truth and the power of their expression...”

“...each person is required to ask, 'what is my authority?' - on what do you base your decisions? if it's yourself, then you are without excuse...”

“...what makes a writer a prophet is his ability to speak truth...”

“...true authority is not based on control - it's based on truth...”

“...when the room goes silent, someone has spoken with authority...”

“...bow to genius, but to the authority of that genius - not the display of talent...”

“...authority is the unmistakeable tone in the voice of a true writer...”

“...I've known damnable beauty - the turgid pull of swirling blackness - but in the end, it's futile - purity alone redeems...”

“...how are you sacred to me? your lines are golden threads - your patter, my patten - I explore the liturgy of your words...”

“...a bard's down-to-earth love: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red and when she walks, treads on the ground...”

“...I love Shakespeare, but sometimes....his images - If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head....”

“...we live in a different world, you and me - governed by different laws...”

“...I hide you inside me because I have found, beauty is the illumination of the mind...”

“...The book of the hours - Tres Riche Heures - what did it matter when I had you?...”

“...yes I understand your spells—your sex magic—at least, I know this: all lights dim when you walk in...”

“...beauty is not symmetry of parts- that's so impotent -as Mishima says, beauty is something that attacks, overpowers, robs, & finally destroys...”

“...don't you realize a flawless profile means nothing when a mere smile drives me to desperation? Don't you covet that power?..”

“...I didn't want you flawless - I have a bare wall at home that's flawless - I wanted your character trapped in the amber of your skin...”

“...and you thought beauty was the outward show - but now you know the truth, my Love - it's always been the inner fire...”

“...Neruda was right about all mysterious women - The moon lives in the lining of their skin...”

“...you ask me why I compare you to stars - it's simple - that's where your goddess has fled...”

“...and here's a secret for you - everything beautiful is sad...gilded with impermanence...”

“...you have a terrible beauty that scares me - a fierce defiance that won't be subdued - not that i want to tame you - I don't - I like to look...”

“...the monk beat me to break my spirit, incensed I knew Acquinas - angry, I knew his riddle - beauty is what is pleasing to the eye - he wasn't...”

“...loveliness is the Milky Way... but also all the myriad points of radiance streaming from your beauty...”

“...those others - they're looking for trends - subjects to catch a spark - but I have you - a coal from God's altar - a star cupped in my hands...”

“...art is weaker than life - in the end I have a bag of letters to scrabble into order - rune tiles to cast my fate...”

“I am in love with the stars of night - I have made them audible...”

“...it's merely writing, but you have to adjust your ear – I speak quietly – I sob – I whisper...”

“...is the writer a prophet or priest - does he show the truth or serve the truth?...”

“...I can think of other forms of worship than loving you, but none that make me feel so fulfilled...”

“...my writing is a wild mustang - more thunderous than a lightning storm -and all my skill which I call art, is devoted to simply staying on...”

“...what is art to the dilettante but the initiation of the sacred few to the exclusion of the profane crowd?...”

“...goodness is not the absence of evil - it's the light that pushes back the darkness...”

“...no good writing flows from a polluted well - you can write about monsters, but you can't be one...”

“...Moonlight possesses no alchemy to transmute good motives to base, but it does excite love magic...”