“Overhead the swallows dipped down to catch bugs rising from the ground. Then they soared back up beyond the barracks. Hannah watched them for a moment, scarcely breathing. It was as if all nature ignored what went on in the camp. There were brilliant sunsets and soft breezes. Around the commandant’s house, bright flowers were teased by the wind. Once she’d seen a fox cross the meadow to disappear into the forest.”
Source: The Devil's Arithmetic (1988), p. 154
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Jane Yolen 28
American speculative fiction and children's writer 1939Related quotes

3-Sep-2008, Setanta website
Just missed out there then.

“That flower
seen as I went down—
as I was coming up
I couldn't see it”
Flowers of a Moment (2006), p. 46

An address at Hebrew University (28 November 1945), as quoted in Rebirth and Destiny of Israel (1954), p. 151

Diary of Alvin York, Account of 8 October 1918.
Context: I don't know whether it was the German major, but one yelled something out in German that we couldn't understand. And then the machine guns on top swung around and opened fire on us. There were about thirty of them. They were commanding us from a hillside less than thirty yards away. They couldn't miss. And they didn't!
They killed all of Savage's squad; they got all of mine but two; they wounded Cutting and killed two of his squad; and Early's squad was well back in the brush on the extreme right and not yet under the direct fire of the machine guns, and so they escaped. All except Early. He went down with three bullets in his body. That left me in command. I was right out there in the open.
And those machine guns were spitting fire and cutting down the undergrowth all around me something awful. And the Germans were yelling orders. You never heard such a racket in all of your life. I didn't have time to dodge behind a tree or dive into the brush, I didn't even have time to kneel or lie down.
I don't know what the other boys were doing. They claim They didn't fire a shot. They said afterwards they were on the right, guarding the prisoners. And the prisoners were lying down and the machine guns had to shoot over them to get me. As soon as the machine guns opened fire on me, I began to exchange shots with them.

Lays of Sorrow No. 2, opening lines
The Rectory Umbrella
"Field and Forest," lines 11-15
The Lost World (1965)
Jewish Chronicle, 12 October 2007 http://thejc.com/home.aspx?AId=56026&ATypeId=1&search=true2&srchstr=patrick%20marber&srchtxt=1&srchhead=1&srchauthor=1&srchsandp=1&scsrch=0