Our dreams are luminous, a cast fire upon the world. Morning arrives and that's it. Sunlight darkens the earth.
How many years have slipped through our hands? At least as many as the constellations we still can identify. The quarter moon, like a light skiff, floats out of the mist-remnants Of last night’s hard rain. It, too, will slip through our fingers with no ripple, without us in it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the passage of time and the fleeting nature of life, suggesting that moments vanish like the moon through mist.
In this quote, Charles Wright meditates on the ephemeral nature of time and experiences. He draws a parallel between the years that seemingly slip away unnoticed and the constellations in the night sky, which remain constant even as individual moments fade from memory. The imagery of the quarter moon floating through the mist evokes a sense of beauty coupled with loss, emphasizing that life’s moments, like the moon and rain, can pass without leaving a mark, highlighting the inevitability of time and our transient existence within it.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a reflective speech on life's impermanence at a memorial service.
More from Charles Wright
All quotes →Similar quotes
Life happens too fast for you ever to think about it. If you could just persuade people of this, but they insist on amassing information.
As I apologized to her a flicker of panic raced through me and then faded away. There wasn't enough life left in me to panic. I'd made a mistake and I was dying. Apparently not even a Speck afterlife was available to me. I'd simply stop being. Apparently I hadn't died correctly. Oops.
Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do With your one wild and precious life?
For I could not read or speak and on the long nights I could not turn the moon off or count the lights of cars across the ceiling.
…tomorrow was her birthday, and she was thinking how fast the years went by, how old she was getting, and how little she seemed to have accomplished. Almost twenty-five and nothing to show for it.
You've been put on the world to love the act of being alive.