I came
into your life already proclaiming
myself difficult to lovebetraying my belief
that love is difficulty.— Jessica Morey-Collins, from “Exercises in Futility,” published in The Boiler
“I keep thinking, thinking, and my thoughts are all sick, and my head is sick.”— Fyodor Dostoevsky, from Stories; “The Meek One,” written c. 1876
“You force me to speak love.”— Margaret Atwood, from The Circle Game: Poems; “Towards & Away,”
“The pale leaves stir, caressed, moon-lit.”— Paul Verlaine, tr. by C. F. MacIntyre, from 101 Poems; “Circumspection,”