Charles Hermans , Masked Ball , 1880

Sarah Bernhardt , Ophelia , 1880

Winslow Homer , Watching the Breakers , 1891

Louis Legrand , The Apache's Supper , 1901

every time i said i want to die  (excerpt) by Andrea Gibson

... 
who taught me that a difficult life is not less
worth living than a gentle one. Joy is just easier
to carry than sorrow. And you could lift a city

from how long you’ve spent holding
what’s been nearly impossible to hold.
This world needs those who know

how to do that. Those who could find 
a tunnel that has no light at the end 
of it and hold it up like a telescope

to show that the darkness contains
many truths that can bring the light
to its knees. Grief astronomer,

adjust the lens, look close,
tell us what you see.

Johan Christian Dahl, Moon night over Dresden, 1827

Gustave Doré , The Clash of the Titans , 1866

Widening Circles by Rainer Maria Rilke

I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
I may not complete this last one
but I give myself to it.

I circle around God, around the primordial tower.
I've been circling for thousands of years
and I still don't know: am I a falcon,
a storm, or a great song?

Edward S. Curtis, Aphrodite , c. 1920

William Mortensen Salomé, 1926

Peter Paul Rubens, The Birth of the Milky Way, 1636-1637

William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Les Oréades, 1902

Giovanni Boldini, The Spanish dancer, 1900

Hans Thoma, Sea awakening, 1893

Frederick Stuart Church, Circe, 1910

William Mortensen, Circe, 1935

Jean-Joseph Perraud, Despair, 1869

Gustav Vigeland , Kneeling Man Embracing a Standing Woman , 1908

Zdzisław Jasiński , Tempest , 1925

Joseph Urban , Sphynxe, 1903