Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, September 23, 1916

The happiest moment contains in its womb the germ of the most morbid one. I seem to feel some presence which hovers to one side — sometimes it is a man, or a phantom, or a running dog I look quickly but there is nothing there.

Yesterday I heard a pounding while at work. It was frightfully deep & hollow seeming to come from the depths of the earth. One night last week I lay in bed fearing to go to sleep for fear I would wake in insanity. It takes so little to cause me to sink into despair and the merest trifle turns the thoughts aside for happier.

I have forgotten these idealistic lands to the south — sun-beaten thunderheads at noon! To awake some morning entirely refreshed, to walk out barefooted in the dewy grass & walk eastward in the dusk over a strange land to meet the sun — North — Noon — all these seem foreign to me — what is the trouble.

Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, September 23, 1916