Dailies: Body lines

Suzanne Valadon - Maurice Utrillo as a boy, drying up the back

I imagine myself walking on the beach of images next to the sea of words. Mostly I just listen, or look. Sometimes I stop to pick up what the sea has washed ashore. I keep my findings in a drawer and on quiet days I take them out and let them speak to me. At other times I feel their weight in my palm and run my fingers along their lines.

Lately I am fascinated by beautiful descriptions in literature of the human body or lack thereof.

~ ~ o ~ ~

Mr. Duffy lived at a little distance from his body.

~ James Joyce

She fitted into my biggest armchair as if it had been built round her by someone who knew they were wearing armchairs tight about the hips that season.

~ P.G. Wodehouse

Not body enough to cover his mind decently with; his intellect is improperly exposed.

~ Revd Sydney Smith

Had Cleopatra’s nose been shorter, the whole face of the world would have changed.

~ Blaise Pascal

… [he was] distinguished by an extremely long neck and … an extremely courteous ‘Adam’s apple’ which escorted each drop down through the loneliness of the gullet to the top of the collar, where it could not possibly lose its way, and then darted assiduously back to its post.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

At 50, everyone has the face he deserves.

~ George Orwell

He had but one eye, and the popular prejudice runs in favour of two.

~ Charles Dickens

In the castle of my skin.

~ George Lamming

It gives me great pleasure, walking at the edge of the water. If you have discoveries of your own, I would love to see them!

George

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The Restory Retreat Centre

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