Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia

Writing Lessons (II.)

PAULETIA HANSEL 271 WRITING LESSONS (II.) from Divining (2001) You really only need to breathe, as long as you breathe with everything, the way your hand breathes in the shape of a baby's head as you cradle the soft green scent of his neck, and your ears breathe in the teeming silence of the forest's edge, and how your eyes breathe in the day as it cracks wider open all the way until you see its fiery center pushing out the night, and how your very heart breathes all you cannot bear to know with eyes or ears or skin alone. Breathe in and hold until your center burns and swells but does not crack. Breathe out. ...