Koleen Hansen

“You told me trees could speak
and the only reason one heard
silence in the forest
was that they had all been born knowing different languages.

That night I went into the forest
to bury dictionaries under roots,
so many books in so many tongues
as to insure speech.

and now this very moment,
the forest seems alive
with whispers and murmurs and rumblings of sound
wind-rushed into my ears.

I do not speak any language
that crosses the silence around me
but how soothing to know
that the yearning and grasping embodied
in trees’ convoluted and startling shapes
is finally being fulfilled
in their wind shouts to each other.

Yet we who both speak English
and have since we were born
are moving ever farther apart
even as branch tips touch.”
― Carol Goodman, The Drowning Tree

“You don't love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear.”
― oscar wilde

“I am not wise, but I can always learn.”
― Tamora Pierce, The Woman Who Rides Like a Man

“Mingling with people, hurting them, getting hurt by them…that's how you learn about others…and about yourself. If you don't you'll never be able to care about anyone but yourself. ”
― Takaya Natsuki, Fruits Basket, Tome 23