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Desire I think has less to do with possession than with participation, the will to involve oneself in the body of the world, in the principle of things expressing itself in splendid specificity, a handful of images: a lover__ irreplaceable body, the roil and shimmer of the sea overshot with sunlight, a handful of cherries, the texture and weight of a word. The word that seems most apt is partake_ We can say we partake of something but we may just as accurately say we take part in something_ we are implicated in another being, which is always the beginning of wisdom, isn__ it- that involvement which enlarges us, which engages the heart, which takes out of the routine limitations of self?
Mark Doty Heaven's Coast: A Memoir
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Desire I think has less to do with possession than with participation, the will to involve oneself in the body of the world, in the principle of things expressing itself in splendid specificity, a handful of images: a lover__ irreplaceable body, the roil and shimmer of the sea overshot with sunlight, a handful of cherries, the texture and weight of a word. The word that seems most apt is partake_ We can say we partake of something but we may just as accurately say we take part in something_ we are implicated in another being, which is always the beginning of wisdom, isn__ it- that involvement which enlarges us, which engages the heart, which takes out of the routine limitations of self?
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Mark Doty

Heaven's Coast: A Memoir

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