#riocords

[seatadel]

“Why do mortals never learn from loss?

Every coupling is temporary. A home

does not endure. Few can bear to

focus on the truth, day upon day.

Lost hopes wash out to a city’s gutters,

drown unseen in muddy water.”

— ANAGOLAY, GODDESS OF LOST THINGS, Gita Ralleigh

[seatadel]

Finished in a frenzy that reminded me of our last night in Cambridge. Watched my final sunrise. Enjoyed a last cigarette. Didn’t think the view could be any more perfect until I saw that beat-up trilby. Honestly, Sixsmith, as ridiculous as that thing makes you look, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anything more beautiful. Watched you for as long as I dared. I don’t believe it was a fluke that I saw you first. I believe there is another world waiting for us, Sixsmith. A better world, and I’ll be waiting for you there. I believe we do not stay dead long. Find me beneath the Corsican stars, where we first kissed.

Yours eternally, R.F.

— CLOUD ATLAS, David Mitchell

[seatadel]

It happens all the time in heaven,

And some day

It will begin to happen

Again on earth -

That men and women who are married,

And men and men who are

Lovers,

And women and women

Who give each other

Light,

Often get down on their knees

And while so tenderly

Holding their lovers hand,

With tears in their eyes

Will sincerely speak, saying,

My dear,

How can I be more loving to you;

How can I be more kind?

— IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME IN HEAVEN, Daniel Ladinsky

[seatadel]

Their bodies cast out messages, their sighs are bottles thrown into the sea, and sometimes a man picks up one of those bottles and there’s just time for a cup of coffee, a whispered promise, disillusionment—men have so little imagination.

— THE LIST OF MY DESIRES, Grégoire Delacourt

[seatadel]

The first time I fell on my hands and knees and scraped my skin, I was astonished by how easily I focused on this injury, how quickly the rest of the world fell away, and how effortlessly I forgot life’s kindness just to focus on this single, tiny misfortune and pain. Same way I focused on a person’s loud voice or slowness, and hating him for it, instead of appreciating—loving—the totality of his being.

I was frightened and impressed by how selfish these bodies made us.      

— WOUNDED LITTLE GODS, Eliza Victoria

[seatadel]

The resolve rising in her soul to die with me drew me I cannot tell you how powerfully, irresistibly to her bosom. Do you remember that I often asked you would you die with me? — But you always said no — A whirlpool of never before experienced happiness has seized hold of me and I cannot deny that her grave is dearer to me than the beds of all the empresses in the world. — Oh, my dear friend, may God soon call you to that better world where we shall all with the love of the angels embrace one another again.

— Adieu.

― KLEIST: SELECTED WRITINGS, Heinrich von Kleist

[seatadel]

Who was strong enough to continue loving even when that love was not returned?

— WOUNDED LITTLE GODS, Eliza Victoria

[seatadel]

"Are they gods?" Regina once asked her grandmother months before she died of old age. Her grandmother said they were nature personified; entities we could commune with and understand until we were worthy enough—or strong enough—to grasp the complexity and magnitude of Bathala.

"So," little Regina said, "they're like secretaries?"

— WOUNDED LITTLE GODS, Eliza Victoria