Dark~Sky Society Quotes

“When he finishes, he looks at me, smiles.
Dw dr

Dw dr, he says. Daughter.
I don't know

what he sees, but I return

his gaze.
I return all of it, all

of what he offers, and all
that he cannot,

not questioning, will it stay
or, is it true? I simply reach across

thought's threshold,
toward

what light reflects

from the sea that joins.”
― Ailish Hopper, Dark~Sky Society

“On Sixteenth, the police
again

hands on their 'nines
elbows cocked

Some knucklehead, says one
tired god

who must always deal
with mortals' errors

ignored the signs”
― Ailish Hopper, Dark~Sky Society

“1

Well I’m so white,
when the lights go out, I glow in the dark.

So white, when I wear white clothes
all you see
are the stripes on my socks.

White
as the sun’s bare rays—iron-heavy
and hot.

White as the grass that’s decomposed,
bleached-away
by a leaf pile.

2

Well I’m so black
when I walk at night
I absorb all the light of the stars.

So black—I can’t drink milk, sing
White Christmas,
drive a white car.

Black
as a vinyl record—issuing song,
not blood.

Black—as the ocean’s
depths, with fish: translucent,
unreal.”
― Ailish Hopper, Dark~Sky Society

“In the famous friendship, Krishna appears
offers Arjuna
[hibiscus, pink blossom]

a life that's truly free

Says, Kill

with the sword of wisdom

all your doubt”
― Ailish Hopper, Dark~Sky Society

“Take Jefferson

Even Adams called him a shadow man

hushed, bland
like the great rivers, that make

no noise Easy to forget

They're carving

valleys”
― Ailish Hopper, Dark~Sky Society

“Please describe your pain on the scale below:

______The shimmer peeled from a feather

______From a hollow-bodied guitar
An abyss

______Rusted shut”
― Ailish Hopper, Dark~Sky Society

“I can't tell you, you have to see
If tender enough, any touch
will bruise”
― Ailish Hopper, Dark~Sky Society

“Brain damage
is like water seepage

through computer circuits
where the water goes

information
disappears

But it can leave islands
untouched

A synapse fires
through unspoiled matter
he says

Finch
Finch

in words collapsed
upon themselves. Says

Father
Father

And I imagine him
then

preacher's tall son

wandering red clay paths
listening

and looking up

for small, quick shifts on branches”
― Ailish Hopper, Dark~Sky Society

“In many of his speeches: Magnificent. He is naming, but also calling,
something buried, a giant. In the room, Forth. But Giants aren't real,
are they.”
― Ailish Hopper, Dark~Sky Society

“His skin, ginger
mine, peony

And, between us, now
the color line”
― Ailish Hopper, Dark~Sky Society

“If memory be a mountaintop

mine is hidden

by fat, puffy clouds, and other
symptoms.”
― Ailish Hopper, Dark~Sky Society

“Here’s another lesson

from pain

From a power line, a robin sings
after the rain

chl dee chdl
chl dee chdl

goes the streak of sound, insistent
as a rusty hinge

It's the same

Then longing”
― Ailish Hopper, Dark~Sky Society

“City of memorials Mute
white façades

granite, pantomiming
loss

After the bomb, they'll all
vanish. Gone

Lincoln's
marble hands

that drape

colossal armrests. Missing
chiseled wave of hair

laid across

his forehead
We

cannot hallow

this ground
the new
absence

might, like Lincoln
say

Or, perhaps

Begin

again”
― Ailish Hopper, Dark~Sky Society