Anne Michaels Quotes about Past

The shadow-past is shaped by everything that never happened. Invisible, it melts the present like rain through karst. A biography of longing. It steers us like magnetism, a spirit torque. This is how one becomes undone

The shadow-past is shaped by everything that never happened. Invisible, it melts the present like rain through karst. A biography of longing. It steers us like magnetism, a spirit torque. This is how one becomes undone by a smell, a word, a place, the photo of a mountain of shoes. By love that closes its mouth before calling a name.

Anne Michaels

Rain, Past, Names

Anne Michaels (2009). “Fugitive Pieces”, p.15, A&C Black

The shadow past is shaped by everything that never happened. Invisible, it melts the present like rain through karst.

Anne Michaels

Rain, Past, Shadow

Anne Michaels (2010). “Fugitive Pieces”, p.17, Emblem Editions

Even as a child, even as my blood-past was drained from me, I understood that if I were strong enough to accept it, I was being offered a second history.

Anne Michaels

Strong, Children, Past

Anne Michaels (2010). “Fugitive Pieces”, p.20, Emblem Editions

Anne Michaels Quotes about Past

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