April 2012
167 posts
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“What if we got outside ourselves and there
really was an outside out there,...”
– Molly Peacock, “Altruism”
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“I do not know that I am happiest when alone; but this I am sure of, that I am...”
– Lord Byron, Letters and Journals of Lord Byron, Volume I by Thomas Moore
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“Poetry holds the outer world in common with the other arts. The heart of man is...”
– Thomas Babington Macaulay, from the essay “Moore’s Life of Lord Byron”
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“The moon shines white and silent
On the mist, which, like a tide
Of some...”
– James Russell Lowell, from “Midnight”
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“Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him,...”
– Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows (with thanks to sionainne)
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“We grow up; but the world remains a child.
Star and flower, in silence, watch...”
– Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Stephen Mitchell (via Love Is A Place)
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“Finally, what I want from poetry I akin to what Flaubert wanted from novels. He...”
– Stephen Dunn, from “Notes” in Walking Light: Essays and Memoirs (Thank you, A Poet Reflects)
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“Truly fine poetry must be read aloud. A good poem does not allow itself to be...”
– Jorge Luis Borges, ”The Divine Comedy”, 1977 lecture
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“My father keeps a light on by our bed
and readies for our journey.
He mends...”
– Li-Young Lee, from “This Hour and What Is Dead“ (with thanks to cartographe)
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“We make our way through Everything like thread passing through fabric: giving...”
– Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters on Life, translated by Ulrich Baer
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“We are rich: we have nothing to lose.
We are old: we have nowhere to rush.
We...”
– Vera Pavlova, translated from the Russian by Steven Seymour
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“If you are irritated by every rub,
how will your mirror be polished?”
– Rumi, Rumi Daylight: A Daybook of Spiritual Guidance, translated by Camille Adams Helminski and Kabir Helminski
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“Through the unknown, we’ll find the new.”
– Charles Baudelaire, from “The Voyage”
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“We see but half the causes of our deeds,
Seeking them wholly in the outer life,...”
– James Russell Lowell, from ”A Glance Behind the Curtain”
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“O poet! above all men blest…”
– James Russell Lowell, from “Flowers”
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“The good poem allows us to believe we have a soul. In the presence of a good...”
– Stephen Dunn, from his essay “The Good, The Not So Good” in Walking Light: Essays and Memoirs (Thank you, A Poet Reflects)
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“… only an aching heart
Conceives a changeless work of art.”
– William Butler Yeats, “Meditations in Time of Civil War” (With thanks to invisiblestories)
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Anonymous asked: And I turned away to thee, / Proud Evening Star, / In thy glory afar, / And dearer thy beam shall be; / For joy to my heart / Is the proud part / Thou bearest in Heaven at night -Edgar Allan Poe, from "Evening Star"
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“The stars have closed their eyes, come.
The wine of light flows through the...”
– Simin Behbahani, “Wine of Light”, translated by Farzaneh Milani and Kaveh Safa
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“When the very last grief
deadens all our pain,
I will follow you there…”
– Vera Pavolova, from “[When the very last grief],” trans. Steven Seymour (Thank you, proustitute)
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“‘Your eyes that once were never weary of mine
Are bowed in sorrow under...”
– W. B. Yeats, “Ephemera”
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“All things uncomely and broken, all things worn out and old,
The cry of a child...”
– W. B. Yeats, “The Lover Tells of the Rose in His Heart”
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“I loved her enough to forget myself, my self-pitying despairs, and be content...”
– Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s
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“Only others save us,
even though solitude tastes like
opium. The others are...”
– Adam Zagajewski, from “In The Beauty Created by Others”
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Anonymous asked: For I have, to enchant those submissive lovers, / Pure mirrors that make all things more beautiful: / My eyes, my large, wide eyes of eternal brightness! -Charles Baudelaire, from "Beauty"
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“To see in death a dream, in the sunset
a golden sadness – such is poetry,...”
– Jorge Luis Borges, from “The Art of Poetry”
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“I cannot walk through the suburbs in the solitude of the night without thinking...”
– Jorge Luis Borges, “A New Refutation of Time” from Labyrinths
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“There is such solitude in that gold.
The moon of these nights is not the moon...”
– Jorge Luis Borges, “The Moon” (trans. A. S. Kline)
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“Give me hunger,
O you gods that sit and give
The world its orders.
Give me...”
– Carl Sandburg, “At a Window”
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“Best of any song
is bird song
in the quiet, but first
you must have the...”
– Wendell Berry, “1997: I” from A Timbered Choir
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“I like people quite well
at a little distance.
I like to see them passing and...”
– D. H. Lawrence, “People”
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“It takes such time to build your stories and without the time … how can...”
– Anne Sexton, from a letter dated spring 1962, found in Anne Sexton: A Self-Portrait in Letters
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“Why should you think that beauty, which is the most precious thing in the world,...”
– W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence (with thanks to artpropelled)
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“Along the river, over the hills, in the ground, in the sky, spring work is going...”
– John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra
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“I dream of a quiet man
who explains nothing and defends
nothing, but only...”
– Wendell Berry, from Given
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“All bend
in one wind.”
– Wendell Berry, “All”, from Given
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