Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, December 29, 1914

Yet it seems to me, if I could remember and put down my thoughts, I at least would have an interesting collection. Of late I have been enjoying romantic adventures of the mind.
The question of finances is persistent. I hate it. It turns my mind chaotically upside down. The true ideal seems false, —the beautiful unattainable. These are bad times for the poet. Courage! It is only one of Thoreau’s steps, by which we ascend.
A Thaw day with a freezing rain, and dense milk blue distances. The air is full of beautiful blue smoke - the haze of a warm winter day. Is it blasphemous to love the drops of dew on the haze blurred branches more than some formal religious idea? I say it is not. It may be said these are my [God] (erased and the remainder of the sentence was written decades later over the erased original entry) Bible, the visible evidence of God - if so, I do love Him.
--Charles E. Burchfield, December 29, 1914