Dread. Bottomless dread... — Anna Akhmatova

"I go forth to seek — To seek and claim the lovely magic garden Where grasses softly sigh and Muses speak."

"O let the organ, many-voiced, sing boldly, O let it roar like springs first thunderstorm! My half-closed eyes over your young brides shoulder Will meet your eyes just once and then no more."

"Damn you! I will not grant your cursed soul Vicarious tears or a single glance. And I swear to you by the garden of the angels, I swear by the miracle-working icon, And by the fire and smoke of our nights: I will never come back to you."

"Thinking of the sun causes quick beating of my heart — snowy weather comes on the wind lightly drifting."

"No foreign sky protected me, no strangers wing shielded my face. I stand as witness to the common lot, survivor of that time, that place. — 1961"

"All has been looted, betrayed, sold; black deaths wing flashed ahead."