a prolonged, magnificent twilight
“In the Antarctic Circle, summer has begun. It is now light twenty-four hours a day. The sun disappears only briefly near midnight leaving a prolonged, magnificent twilight. Ice showers lend a fairy tale atmosphere to the scene. Millions of delicate crystals, thin and needle-like, descend in sparkling beauty through the twilight air.”
—Sir Ernest Shackleton; the last entries in his shipboard diary, 1915; Endurance: Shackletons Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing. Quoted by Andr Gregory in Bone Songs, 2006.
fresh pink lips
“I would love to smother someone new.
Kill her with kisses on her fresh pink lips.
Tear out her eyeballs with my fingertips.
Love her to death in a deathly life.
Id be her vampire,
shed be my wife.”
—Andr Gregory, Bone Songs, 2006.
turn on the lights
“Turn on the lights,
turn on the lights,
the days are done,
I want the nights.”
—Andr Gregory, Bone Songs, 2006.
the golden leaves of autumn
“Its time.
A time to rake the golden leaves of autumn
and a time to sit by running brooks in summertime,
fishing with a golden fly
and wishing that these endless evenings never die or fade.”
—Andr Gregory, Bone Songs, 2006.
a dark brown voice
“She walked up to me
And she asked me to dance
I asked her her name
And in a dark brown voice
She said Lola
L-O-L-A Lola”
—Ray Davies (The Kinks), Lola, 1970.
froth of the liquid jade
“The ancient Chinese healers believed that the spirit and essence of the Great Mother Goddess flowed from the center of the Earth into plants and minerals. . . . The plants and stones that stored up the greatest amount of soul substance were the ones with good color. Jade, for example, was considered very powerful on account of its brilliant shades of green. The good color may be what attracted the healers also to the luscious, evergreen tea plant and might explain why, in China, tea as a beverage came to be known as the froth of the liquid jade, in honor of the much revered magical stone.”
—Beatrice Hohenegger, Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West, 2006.
green tea mixed with mint
“In Morocco youll be awed by the precision with which green tea mixed with mint is poured from a metal pot several feet away into your glass. In Japan youll be handed a bowl of bright green whipped matcha or delicate sencha.”
—Beatrice Hohenegger, Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West, 2006.
My cinnamon girl
“A dreamer of pictures
I run in the night
You see us together
chasing the moonlight
My cinnamon girl”
—Neil Young, Cinnamon Girl, 1969.
Blue to Blue
“The Brain is deeper than the sea
Forhold themBlue to Blue
The one the other will absorb
As SpongesBucketsdo”
—Emily Dickinson, The Brain is wider than the Sky.
too white
“And even when youre healthy
And your colour schemes delight
Down below those dandy clothes
Youre just a shade too white”
—Adam & the Ants, Kings of the Wild Frontier, 1980.