words that find themselves settling comfortably within my ribs.

• virginia woolf's 1931 new years resolutions: to have none. to not be tied. to be free & kindly with myself. sometimes to read, sometimes not to read. to go out, yes—but stay at home in spite of being asked. as for clothes, i think to buy good ones.
• please, in all this muddle of life, continue to be a bright and constant star. just a few things remain as beacons: poetry, and you, and solitude. — vita sackville-west, letter to virginia woolf
• girl, aging girl, is haunted by own nothingness & devours views from windows (stories, movies, overheard talk & sights in the street, pictures in newspapers, etc.) with continuous feeling she is 'just about', miraculously, to come into her own — her own life. — sylvia plath, the unabridged journals