Cindy Knoke

“All rivers carry their secrets, but not every river keeps its secret forever.”
― Bernard Jan, January River

“I read the last three lines of the popular poem about having faith in God:
“…during your trials and testings,
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you.”
― Tracy Stopler, The Ropes That Bind: Based on a True Story of Child Sexual Abuse

“Clocks ticking, wasted time, reminded [Poe]
The coffin waits and pages lie half done
In desolation. Anonymity’s
Curse frightens writers more than Roderick
Encountering his sister’s open crypt.

- - from my poem "Poe and His Women" - -”
― LindaAnn LoSchiavo, A Route Obscure and Lonely

“To acknowledge the existence of the bully and his accompanying risks is not the same as accepting him as a permanent feature of our world. I know that if we accept trauma and fear, it wins.

"Bullies don’t just go away. Their legacies don’t just disappear. The bully must be confronted intentionally, his impact named and addressed. Even so, it seems there’s no clear consensus on how to deal with the bully on our blocks. Do we confront him? Match violence with violence? Do we ignore him, or try to kill him with kindness? I don’t think there’s a silver bullet to handling the bully, no one-size-fits-all strategy. But the right strategy has to be rooted in a context bigger than the immediate one, has to be rooted in more than aiming to end the presence of the bully himself. We must focus on the type of world we want to live in and devise a plan for getting there, as opposed to devising a strategy centered on opposition.”
― DeRay McKesson, On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope