“A horse loves freedom, and the weariest old work horse will roll on the ground or break into a lumbering gallop when he is turned loose in the open.”
—Gerald Raftery (1905–1986), Snow Cloud, 1951
1950s
Lonesome animals
“A writer out of loneliness is trying to communicate like a distant star sending signals. He isn’t telling or teaching or ordering. Rather he seeks to establish a relationship of meaning, of feeling, of observing. We are lonesome animals. We spend all life trying to be less lonesome. One of our ancient methods is to tell a story begging the listener to say — and to feel — ‘Yes, that’s the way it is, or at least that’s the way I feel it. You’re not as alone as you thought.’”
—John Steinbeck, letter to Peter Benchley, 1956
The spaces
And do not forget the spaces. When earth’s
Heaviness pulls hard, turn to the spaces.
Their breezes will brace us — and we shall know.
—Cave A. Outlaw (1900–1996), Fugitive Hour, 1950
That social fellow
Where once I loved my flesh,
That social fellow,
Now I want security of bone
And cherish the silence of my skeleton…
—Thomas McGrath, from “The Progress of the Soul,” Figures of the Double World, 1955
♯lifegoals
“I really would like to stop working forever — never work again, never do anything like the kind of work I’m doing now — and do nothing but write poetry and have leisure to spend the day outdoors and go to museums and see friends… Just a literary and quiet
—Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997)