He said: "I was standing by the side of the road, waiting for a ride to anywhere. I needed to get out of Dodge, man. I needed to be in another place, another frame of reference, a change of mind. I needed to be free of the things that were bothering me and I wanted to see everything I could see and do everything that could be done. I needed to know who I was and where I was going before I got there. I needed to know why I was here and where was the beginning and the end. I needed to live so that that I could write about it. I needed to be on the road."

Stumble It!

She said: Sometimes I scare myself. I have these silly thoughts sometimes, like that I might go out in public having forgotten to dress. Sometimes, when I wake up, I'm confused about where I am. Sometimes I forget where I am and I think that I'm somewhere other than in my own safe bed. Sometimes I forget that I'm alone and I talk out loud and there isn't a response back to me and I think that, "well, I guess they left and didn't say 'goodby'". Sometimes I worry that I will forget who I am and that they will come and put me in a hospital or something and that I will be alone except for the sick people there and that no one will tell me that I am going outside with my clothes on."

Stumble It!

He said: "I could see her a block away. It was a hot one, the sun just beating down and it was hard to look up from the cool shadows. But I looked up and there she was, on the other side of the street, waiting for the traffic to thin out or for the traffic light to give her the O.K. Even from that far away I could tell that she was beautiful, almost like a movie star or something. I couldn't take my eyes away. She waited, watching the mid-day traffic and so did I. I wanted to cross over to the side of the street that she was waiting on, but I didn't cross over when the light changed to green. I waiting and watched he cross to my side, an angle who waited to cross over to my side."

Stumble It!

He said: "I can almost remember the time of the warriors. My father would tell us children about that time. It was both frightening and spell binding. The wars between the Gods and the wars between the tribes seemingly never ended. These stories had been passed down to us from many generations, so each uncle or grandfather had a different slant on the stories. Sometimes, the grand fathers would argue among themselves when then came to tell us of our history, and we would try not to laugh because that would have meant a lashing in punishment. The wars between the gods went on for many years and some say, they continue ever now. That's the thing with wars: They are hard to put out."

Stumble It!

She said: "It was like climbing Jacob's ladder. The more I looked up the longer it was to climb. We had the baby with us and, of course, all the luggage and the baby was crying because she was hungry and there just seemed to be no end in sight. So we just kept on climbing and hoped for the best. I didn't think we would ever actually get there, but we kept on just the same. You have to believe in times like this that there will be an end and that we will arrive, and that our Lord will pick us up and take us to glory. But, it was hard to remember that at the airport."

Stumble It!

He said: "Well, she was one for the ages, all right. She had style and she had class and she knew how to drive a man crazy with desire. She did all right for herself, that's for sure. She had sex appeal, and she was smart. She knew exactly what a man wanted and how far he would go to get it. Her five husbands were all worn out old men when she got through with them, but she somehow always remained young. She was active right up until the end. She was an inspiration is what I think. She was never vulgar and her standards stayed high. You know that she adopted five babes from different parts of the world. Yes, sir, she was something, all right. She was one for the ages."

Stumble It!

She said: "There is no bargaining with cats
No deals
She is as sure as a Republican
She knows what she wants and demands it
Like a cat."

From "Cats", McLean Hospital Poetry Workshop

Stumble It!

She said: "It can happen so fast, between the time that you blink and then open your eyes it can happen to you. Before you ask 'What shall we do?', you could be gone. It doesn't happen to everyone and I don't know how the choice is made, and, in a way, I am glad to know that it is fast, that I won't know that it has happened to me, that I won't feel it when it comes to take me up, to lift me out of this body and into the air itself. For some, it is a mercy. For me, I hope that it will be a blink of an eye."

Stumble It!

He said: "God knows, but I don't. That's the difference between God and me. I don't know what the things that happen, happen. I don't know why I can't stop the bad things from happening to people that I know and love. I don't know why people have to sometimes suffer in awful ways. I'm not clued into any of this. I read about it in the paper, just like you, and I shake my head and say, 'That could be me'. Then I turn the page. I really don't ever want it to be me. I don't want it to be anyone, really. Sometimes I think God is sleeping and that it would be good if He woke up now, because I don't know why bad things happen. I'm not God."

Stumble It!

She said: "A body needs it's rest, 'specially on a hot day like today, with that hot sun burning down like it is. Yes, I like to have a cool drink and a bit of shade on a hot day like today, a cool drink and a place to sit and watch everybody rushing around on the hot pavement. I like to have something to fan my hot face with. Sometimes that's just a bit of that free newspaper they're always shoving at me in the Metro. When it's hot like this the Metro is usually cool, but not always. And, it don't matter than much anyway because, you know, a body can't spend all day on the subway. No, eventually a body has to come out into the hot air and find a cool place to site for a spell."

Stumble It!

He said: "We have the Science of Breathing and the Science of Needing, and the Science of Sudden Death, but are lacking in other areas. We need to develop the Science of Letting Go as well as the Science of too much news; we need to refocus our expectations on more positive pursuits. There is a world out there that has not benefited from our efforts. There is still Worry and the diseases of Disappointment and Caution. The world could benefit from an examination of Joy, for example. We need to have new Sciences that will affirm the pleasures of Song and the magic of Dance."

Stumble It!

She said: "Because the door was open, I slipped through. Because I was lucky, I was not caught. Because I was smart, I knew where I had to go, and because I still had friends, there were people who could help me. Because I was patient, I knew what I had to do. Because I had traveled a hard highway, I was prepared for the worst. Because I could never know how close they were, I took precautions; because the road was not straight, I took care to be careful. It took a long time; it took many tears and many prayers. I was alone for a long time, but that did not matter. What mattered was that I would one day be free."

Stumble It!

He said: "Guys all want a clean, dry place. A place where a guy can hang his hat and where he can give the gal a good squeeze and maybe a peck on the cheek. A guy wants a place to lay down and relax after a day in the fields or the mines, or the office. All guys want to feel like they are responsible for making it happen in the way that it happens. Guys want to feel like they are part of the whole thing and that the whole thing is there and the whole thing is working the way it does because they, themselves, made the damn thing happen in the first place. A guy likes to stretch out and feel that everything is all right and everything is in it's rightful place and that there is peace in the world, and when night falls, his belly will be full and sleep will find him contented."

Stumble It!

She said: "There is a kind of pain that can't be felt, but only seen. There is a kind of ache that keeps you up at night but is gone with the first sun light. There is a kind of ending that leaves no room for new beginings and there are tastes that fowl the mouth so that the ire can not be swallowed. We all live with different diseases. There is the disease of neglect. There is the disease of faithlessness. There is the disease of waiting for it all to pass. We are each silently reaching for the moment of peace when all the pain collects so that it can be forever put away, locked away in a dark place from which there is no return."

Stumble It!