Donna Nobis Pacem

"The great red hills stand desolate and the earth has torn away like flesh. The lightning flashes over them, the clouds pour down upon them, the dead streams come to life, full of the red blood of the earth. Down in the valleys, women scratch the soil that is left and the maize hardly reaches the height of a man. They are the valleys of old men and old women, of mothers and children. The men are away. The soil cannot keep them anymore."
-- Cry, the beloved country, Alan Paton -- about Zulu land

"Her voice calms me and her arms warm me and her smell lightens me and I can feel her heart beat and my heart slows and I stop shaking and the Fury melts into her safety and she holds me and she says.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay."
-- James Frey, A Million Pieces