For the Sleepwalkers Tonight I want to say something wonderful for the sleepwalkers who have so much faith in their legs, so much faith in the invisible arrow carved into the carpet, the worn path that leads to the stairs instead of the window, the gaping doorway instead of the seamless mirror. I love the… Continue reading Edward Hirsch
All true poetic genius tends to generate prophetic insight. The poet cannot help but listen to awakening voices that are not yet audible to the rest of men. – Thomas Merton, from “Rubén Darío,” The Literary Essays of Thomas Merton. (New Directions Publishing Corporation March 1, 1985)
Have compassion for everyone you meet even if they don’t want it. What seems conceit, bad manners, or cynicism is always a sign of things no ears have heard, no eyes have seen. You do not know what wars are going on down there where the spirit meets the bone. – Miller Williams, “Compassion,” The… Continue reading Miller Williams
The most demanding part of living a lifetime as an artist is the strict discipline of forcing oneself to work steadfastly along the nerve of one’s own most intimate sensitivity. – Anne Truitt, Daybook: The Journal of an Artist. (Penguin Books March 6, 1984) Originally published September 12th 1982
Knot by knot I untie myself from the past And let it rise away from me like a balloon. What a small thing it becomes. What a bright tweak at the vanishing point, blue on blue. – Charles Wright, from “Arkansas Traveller,” The Other Side of the River. (Vintage; 1st Vintage Books ed edition January… Continue reading Charles Wright
What faded wasn’t poetry. – Carlos Drummond de Andrade, from “In Search of Poetry,” Multitudinous Heart: Selected Poems. Translated by Richard Zenith. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Bilingual ed. edition June 23, 2015)
I am thinking of the dead Who are still with us. They are not like us, they are Young and beautiful, On their way in the rain To meet their lovers. On their way with their dark umbrellas, Always laughing, so quick, Like limbs flying back In a boat before night, So constant, Like the… Continue reading Frank Stanford
Who doesn’t want to just disappear, at some point in the day, in a year, to just step off the map and float? ― Nick Flynn, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City: A Memoir. (W. W. Norton; Reprint edition September 17, 2005)
There is this cave In the air behind my body That nobody is going to touch: A cloister, a silence Closing around a blossom of fire. When I stand upright in the wind, My bones turn to dark emeralds. – James Wright, “The Jewel,” The Branch Will Not Break. (Wesleyan University Press; 1st edition May… Continue reading James Wright
Poetry might be defined as the clear expression of mixed feelings. ― W.H. Auden, The Double Man, a book of poems by W. H. Auden, published in 1941. The title of the UK edition, published later the same year, was New Year Letter. (Faber and Faber; First Edition edition 1941)
The Vale of Soul-Making 