Roadsouls Quotes

“I am whole," said Raím. "Broken and whole are the same.”
― Betsy James, Roadsouls

“Duuni let her questions fall and rode on toward wherever it was she was supposed to go, watching the mountain change slowly, like a jewel turned in the light.”
― Betsy James, Roadsouls

“I am dying,’ she said. ‘I want you to paint the goddess on my hand. When I go to that other land I shall hold up my hand—’ she held it up ‘and greet her. She has given me a good life.’…

‘Aye,’ said the old woman. ‘Imoy, there she is. Here we paint her looking down to see us, but this is better. Her eyes are open, she will know me.”
― Betsy James, Roadsouls

“The steam at the kettle’s spout,
The flame at the candle’s wick,
Rest on an emptiness
Invisible, quick.
The word at the poet’s lip,
The line at the painter’s brush,
Rest on an emptiness.

Hush.
*Shrine poem.* Welling-in-the-Mountains.”
― Betsy James, Roadsouls

“The soul’s hand
has an eye.
*Carved on a rain-worn stone.*
Welling-in-the-Mountains.”
― Betsy James, Roadsouls

“The high fear was over, and nothing was left but the fear that never stops, the one that asks and asks, *How shall I stay alive today?*”
― Betsy James, Roadsouls

“What followed her stayed just out of sight in the woods and deep grasses. It was quiet. She was not sure what it waited for; it ought to have eaten her before she had walked so far with nothing but grubs for dinner. Her arms looked narrow, and even her hurt wrist looked thin. She thought, At my right hand Raím follows me in the mountain. He is a ghost; I am becoming a ghost. When I have walked to the end of the mountain he will be there, and I shall lie down against his shoulder, and stop walking, and be safe.”
― Betsy James, Roadsouls