All Quotes By Tag: Poetry

“The aim of science is to make difficult things understandable in a simpler way; the aim of poetry is to state simple things in an incomprehensible way. The two are incompatible.”

“When You ReturnFallen leaves will climb back into trees.Shards of the shattered vase will riseand reassemble on the table.Plastic raincoats will refoldinto their flat envelopes. The egg,bald yolk and its transparent halo,slide back in the thin, calcium shell.Curses will pour back into mouths,letters un-write themselves, wordssiphoned up into the pen. My gray hairwill darken and become the feathersof a black swan. Bullets will snapback into their chambers, the powdertamped tight in brass casings. Borderswill disappear from maps. Rustrevert to oxygen and time. The firereturn to the log, the log to the tree,the white root curled upin the un-split seed. Birdsong will flyinto the lark’s lungs, answersbecome questions again.When you return, sweaters will unraveland wool grow on the sheep.Rock will go home to mountain, goldto vein. Wine crushed into the grape,oil pressed into the olive. Silk reeled into the spider’s belly. Night mothstucked close into cocoons, ink drainedfrom the indigo tattoo. Diamondswill be returned to coal, coalto rotting ferns, rain to clouds, lightto stars sucked back and backinto one timeless point, the way it wasbefore the world was born,that fresh, that whole, nothingbroken, nothing torn apart.”

“There have been times I’ve felt so much art in my soul I grew sick of artists.”

“what if I fall? oh, my darling, but if you fly?”

“Maple. MaypoleCatch and carry.Ash and Ember.Elderberry.Woolen. Woman.Moon at night.Willow. Window.Candlelight.Fallow farrow.Ash and oak.Bide and borrow.Chimney smoke.Barrel. Barley.Stone and stave.Wind and water.Misbehave.”

“If I Must GoIf I must go to heaven’s endClimbing the ages like a stair,Be near me and forever bendWith the same eyes above me there;Time will fly past us like leaves flying,We shall not heed, for we shall beBeyond living, beyond dying,Knowing and known unchangeably.”

“in the afterglowof an evening raini lay downin the grass and think of youmy body acheslike an after-kissbreaking in soft firesand wildflowersmy dear, i will always bethis tender for you.”

“i’m glad to be alive in a world wherehis gently awakening eyesnourish the morning sun.”

“a silent night. – the most eloquent poem i have ever read.”

“Love is bitter, death is sweet.”

“Go then, O my inseperable, this once more,”

“In times of crisis, we must all decide again and again whom we love.”

“After YearsToday, from a distance, I saw youwalking away, and without a soundthe glittering face of a glacierslid into the sea. An ancient oakfell in the Cumberlands, holding onlya handful of leaves, and an old womanscattering corn to her chickens looked upfor an instant. At the other sideof the galaxy, a star thirty-five timesthe size of our own sun explodedand vanished, leaving a small green spoton the astronomer’s retinaas he stood on the great open domeof my heart with no one to tell.”

“We are each what never leaves us, what we never seethe back ofis the self. But what loves usis at the back, as Eurydice wasescorting him outwithout his knowing.”

“Eagle’s flight of loneliness soars so high Around its sigh, no more alone the sky Other birds remain away, clouds pass byBetween shrouds of life and haze sun rays die”