the power of introverts

~ Susan Cain

all kinds of minds

~ Temple Grandin

happiness and bare consciousness

~ Matthieu Ricard

after a death

Once there was a shock

that left behind a long, shimmering comet tail.

It keeps us inside.  It makes the TV pictures snowy.

It settles in cold drops on the telephone wires.

One can still go slowly on skis in the winter sun

through brush where a few leaves hang on.

They resemble pages torn from old telephone directories.

Names swallowed by the cold.

It is still beautiful to hear the heart beat

but often the shadow seems more real than the body.

The samurai looks insignificant

beside his armor of black dragon scales.

~ Tomas Transtromer

from The Half-Finished Heaven

translated by Robert Bly