Redemption Song by Kevin Young

Finally fall.
At last the mist,
heat's haze, we woke
these past weeks with

has lifted. We find
ourselves chill, a briskness
we hug ourselves in.
Frost greying the ground.

Grief might be easy
if there wasn't still
such beauty — would be far
simpler if the silver

maple didn't thrust
it's leaves into flame,
trusting that spring
will find it again.

All this might be easier if
there wasn't a song
still lifting us above it,
if wind didn't trouble

my mind like water.
I half expect to see you
fill the autumn air
like breath — 

At night I sleep
on clenched fists.
Days I'm like the child
who on the playground

falls, crying
not so much from pain
as surprise.
I'm tired of tide

taking you away,
then back again — 
what's worse, the forgetting
or the thing

you can't forget.
Neither yet —
last summer's
choir of crickets

grown quiet.

Kevin Young

You will always be too much of something for someone...

"You will always be too much of something for someone: too big, too loud, too soft, too edgy. If you round out your edges, you lose your edge." - Danielle LaPorte, The Positivity of Pride

How to Be a Writer: 10 Tips from Rebecca Solnit

"Listen to your own feedback and remember that you move forward through mistakes and stumbles and flawed but aspiring work, not perfect pirouettes performed in the small space in which you initially stood. Listen to what makes your hair stand on end, your heart melt, and your eyes go wide, what stops you in your tracks and makes you want to live, wherever it comes from, and hope that your writing can do all those things for other people. Write for other people, but don't listen to them too much."

http://lithub.com/how-to-be-a-writer-10-tips-from-rebecca-solnit/

Education is everything. (Sam Seaborn, The West Wing)

"...Education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don't need little changes, we need gigantic, monumental changes. Schools should be palaces. The competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be making six-figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge to its citizens, just like national defense.

"That's my position. I just haven't figured out how to do it yet."

- Sam Seaborn: The West Wing.

Which hobbies or experiences have made you a better designer? (Frank Chimero)

Photo by NOAA: cirrus clouds

"Here's what I believe: Reading and meditation open up your head and re-establish a better pace of time versus the frenzied internet. Cooking balances out the sensory experience of design work by giving you texture, smell, and taste. Personal loss forces you take your job a little less seriously. Self-reflection and good relationships help you see yourself as a part of the family of things. These don't necessarily have much to do with design, but if I take care of my whole self, the part of me that is my job follows. Nothing else has ever worked."

https://blog.framer.com/ask-a-designer-frank-chimero-bb2380fd41db