Geography and Plays

by Gertrude Stein

Please all trembling when there is a time to rise, please it all and do nothing nicely. So serene, so much a moon, so white and always plain, a sensation is not altered by more being mentioned.

A time to stay is when there is the feeling in it and it has been done. Why should no hope be more. Why should it. It does show faces and if there are there one is smaller, there is no reason why a beard should be there. It is mostly in sight and blindness is satisfying. There is no blindness where the talk is cheap.

Laugh the basket into a little glass and all the point is painted. So soon is the jewel and so dirty the splinter that any march is a distinction. There is that way. If and there is no accusing, if the sight means that surely the illumination is incandescent then surely something is expected of the direction which is opposite. There is that union and the face is there. So soon does a cork mean closing and the belt open. This is no time to stay. A time for splashing is not ever with a brick color. No shaking is too great for a head. This does not mean coming after. It means that that is never over. It means more and it has no splinter, it does not mean samples.

A pale rose is a smell that has no fountain, that has upside down the same distinction, elegance is not coloured, the pain is there.

It is so clearly pleased that which is benumbed and articulate and if in replying there is the indication of a sentence then surely the whole thing is hurled. The house has that patience. The story is in the evening. A single recital makes a hat, more makes no more cloth than pleating.

All the same there is silence, there is uneasiness, there is an appetite, all the same there is silence, there is the tune, there is the birthday. All the same any Christmas is nearer. All the same more talk is solemn. All the same there is a special way. All the same there is left a pint. All the same the fruit is quince. All there is is that shape. The return is extinguished.

A life-long dismissal means an admission to each one. This passes more places and not any more faces. This does show the joint when there is chicken. The salad has cheese and there is no more added table. It is so large that there is a window seat.

So much persistance, so much elbow place, so much single authority and able china, so much more and a cold bigger, that means that there is thieves. Staining anything is not underwear. So soon there is more motion.

Plead the use of a magazine and send more card paper, this is so tiring and reading a letter is the same as writing an answer. Something was handed to some one.

A dark tunnel has no open shelter and to be dark is to be left lighter. This does not mean that there was a shadow, it does not mean that a shadow has a painting or a passage it simply means that it is unique and that there is an explanation.