I don’t love you as if you were a rose of salt (Neruda)

October 18, 2015 | irishoodart

I don’t love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz,

or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:

I love you as one loves certain obscure things,

secretly, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom but carries

the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself,

and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose

from the earth lives dimly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,

I love you directly without problems or pride:

I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love,

except in this form in which I am not nor are you,

so close that your hand upon my chest is mine,

so close that your eyes close with my dreams.

By Pablo Neruda, One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII

Dancer No.2 (2015)

Image | October 16, 2015 | irishoodart

I am alive (2012)

October 7, 2015October 7, 2015 | irishoodart

“Every morning think as you wake up:
I am alive,
I have a precious human life,
I am not going to waste it.
I am going to use all of my energies to develop myself,
To expand my heart out to others,
To achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings.
I am not going to get angry,
Or think badly about others.
I am going to benefit others as much as I can.”

– Dalai Lama

Ballet Dancer (2015)

October 6, 2015 | irishoodart

“She had a little rebel in her. A little chaos and a little gentleness. She didn’t say much and sometimes she would doze off. She would drift away, dream with the stars and that was ok. She had a little fight in her and every time she built enough courage her voice would echo through the sky. She wasn’t complete but she had enough. There was a science to her genius, her madness, her beauty and there was nothing she couldn’t accomplish. She was unstoppable and everything she ever wanted she took, with nothing on but a smile.” ~ R. M. Drake