varying degrees of light

[Poetry] may make us from time to time a little more aware of the deeper, unarmed feelings which form the substratum of our being, to which we rarely penetrate; for our lives are mostly a constant evasion of ourselves, and an evasion of the visible and sensible world. But to say all this is only to say what you know already, if you have felt poetry and thought about your feelings.

-T. S. Eliot. The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism.

You say you lost your faith, but that's not where it's at; you have no faith to lose and you know it.

-Bob Dylan. Positively 4th Street.