The Honey Month Quotes

“I am sad because I love you, because I love you so much, and because I am not a bee to buzz with you lightly. I am not a flower, not a tree, not a rain-hewn stone. I am not a storm or a cresting wave, not a thorn or a vine. I am not the sun stinging the water, not the moon on the snow. I am not a star in the dark. I am not the dew-wet wind, not the cloud-stained dawn. I am only a girl, a small, plain girl, a girl who must smear her lips in honey to be found sweet.”
― Amal El-Mohtar, The Honey Month

“She shied away from the gazes of boys and girls, bound her hair in brambles, braceleted her arms in vines, filled her mouth with chestnut honey to say away, keep away; I have forgotten how to kiss, how to be kissed, and do not want to remember.”
― Amal El-Mohtar, The Honey Month

“I've worked so hard for you today,
and I am wearied, emptied all—
and all I want is a little bed
with a curved moon swinging
and another in the room, singing.”
― Amal El-Mohtar, The Honey Month

“Ophelia went to the river with flowers in her hair,
the river came to Ophelia with a fern in his.
She loved the river, drank him down;
he loved Ophelia, took her tears.
They swallowed each other like spoonfuls of salt
and they sang and sang, until, together,
they came to know the sea.”
― Amal El-Mohtar, The Honey Month

“I knew you once. I thought I did, and thought I knew myself as well. My little body, tiny wings, though small, still yet my very own. But I cannot see, cannot be sure, if in this fragile frame of mine, if in this dust, I have the strength to come to know you twice.”
― Amal El-Mohtar, The Honey Month

“away, keep away; I have forgotten how to kiss, how to be kissed, and do not want to remember. It”
― Amal El-Mohtar, The Honey Month

“To give Manuka honey says I care for you more than I care for your caring of me. I care for you so much that I will hurt you to see you well, that I will put foulness into your mouth because I know it to be medicine, that I will take your scowls and hatreds and fold them against my heart like a locket full of hair because I will know you to be well.”
― Amal El-Mohtar, The Honey Month

“As Amal put it, our people’s palms are too full of thorns to hold hands, even though they match. The”
― Amal El-Mohtar, The Honey Month

“The world is not for catching, love not for having, not for keeping. The world is all for sipping, love so tilt back your head and drink. But”
― Amal El-Mohtar, The Honey Month

“This one has much of dawn over rivers to it, says Italian Pinot Grigio to me. Smell:”
― Amal El-Mohtar, The Honey Month

“It is not static as fossilized wood, not delicate as new-fallen snow. When red seeks to be its truest self, it is in motion. It fears no change. He has shrugged at Paracelsus, at Tarot cards, at accusations of devilry. Red is his religion.”
― Amal El-Mohtar, The Honey Month

“I did not seek a god to make me mumble like a clod as sweet within my mouth went sour. When first I came to the land of Nod I did not seek a god.”
― Amal El-Mohtar, The Honey Month