Those who pulled their homes from beyond the horizon

Traveling in
these giant cedar canoes,
the Haida
would regularly paddle their home
into, and
out of,
existence.

With each collective paddle stroke
they would have seen
their islands sinking
steadily
into the sea, while
distant snow-covered peaks
scrolled up before them
like a new planet.

Few people alive today
have any notion of how it might feel
to pull worlds up from
beyond the horizon
by faith and muscle alone.

--John Vaillant, The Golden Spruce (quote,
arranged)

The trick of living

The world is
as sharp as
the edge of a knife.

If you live
on the edge of a circle,
that is the present moment.

What's inside
is knowledge, experience:
the past.

What's outside has
yet to be
experienced.

The knife's edge is so fine
that you can live
either in the past, or
in the future.

The real trick,
is to live on the edge.

--Robert Davidson, Haida artist (quoted
by John Vaillant, The Golden Spruce,
arranged)