Now: Moments As I mentioned to begin my first book, Niches of Clarity, I chose to call the most important moments of the year of my diagnosis and surgery niches to convey their permanence. I also spent time searching poetry on the Internet to help me cope after stumbling upon poet Naomi Shihab Nye on Bill Moyer’s TV show NOW. And what I discovered is that there is a very rich and rewarding lode of wonderful words about the ‘moments’ in life out there.

As I came out of cabbageness in 2004, I got to thinking about the permanent memories Garrison Keillor urges you to treasure in the monologue D.J. So I set off to purposely squeeze out the moments of clarity in those memories.

For instance, I obviously remember vividly the moments that Jessie and Mark first appeared.

Famous writers and poets obviously feel the same way. I especially like the following quote about the body feeling moments of higher emotions appealing to the aesthetic sense.

"There are moments when the body is as numinous
as words, days that are the good flesh continuing"
Robert Hass

And the following two are also wonderful:

"For these are moments only, moments of insight,
And there are reaches to be attained,
A last level of anxiety that melts
In becoming, like miles under the pilgrim’s feet."
John Ashbery

"In my cheapest moments I am apt to think that it isn’t my business to be “seeking the spirit,” but as much its business to be seeking me."
Henry David Thoreau  ¶ 1:56 PM