Nikki O'Leary

DROWNING is not so pitiful 

As the attempt to rise.

Three times, ’t is said, a sinking man 

Comes up to face the skies,

And then declines forever

To that abhorred abode 


Where hope and he part company,— 

For he is grasped of God.

The Maker’s cordial visage, 

However good to see,

Is shunned, we must admit it, 

Like an adversity.


- Emily Dickinson

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