poetry

"Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky, We fell them down and turn them into paper,That we may record our emptiness."

"Water, water, everywhere,And all the boards did shrink;Water, water, everywhere,Nor any drop to drink."

"We were hooked when we woke.We had arms for each other.But I yearned to resumeMy dreams of another."

"The night has a thousand eyes,And the day but one; Yet the light of the bright world dies With the dying sun. The mind has a thousand eyes, And the heart but one: Yet the light of a whole life dies When love is done."

"I am that last, thatfinal thing, the bodyin a white sheet listening,"

"My heart leaps up when I beholdA rainbow in the sky:So was it when my life began;So is it now I am a man;"

"My writing has appeared in the New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly, though whenever the newsstand guy catches me scribbling my poetry in them, he always comes along later and erases it."

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."

"The true poem rests between the words."

"Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history."

"Follow, poet, follow rightTo the bottom of the night,With your unconstraining voiceStill persuade us to rejoice;With the farming of a verseMake a vineyard of the curse,Sing of human unsuccessIn a rapture of distress;In the deserts of the heartLet the healing fountain start,In the prison of his daysTeach the free man how to praise."

"A tough life needs a tough language—and that is what poetry is. That is what literature offers—a language powerful enough to say how it is."

"to live in this worldyou must be ableto do three thingsto love what is mortal;to hold itagainst your bones knowingyour own life depends on it;and, when the time comes to let it go,to let it go"

"You will come away bruised.You will come away bruisedbut this will give you poetry."

"How to Write a PoemCatch the airaround the butterfly."

"The Girl With Many EyesOne day in the parkI had quite a surprise.I met a girlwho had many eyes.She was really quite pretty(and also quite shocking!)and I noticed she had a mouth,so we ended up talking.We talked about flowers,and her poetry classes,and the problems she'd haveif she ever wore glasses.It's great to know a girlwho has so many eyes,but you really get wetwhen she breaks down and cries."

"you can take this mouththis wound you wantbut you can't kissand make itbetter."

"because two bodies, naked and entwined,leap over time, they are invulnerable,nothing can touch them, they return to the source,there is no you, no I, no tomorrow,no yesterday, no names, the truth of twoin a single body, a single soul,oh total being..."

"You know how this is:if I lookat the crystal moon, at the red branchof the slow autumn at my window,if I touchnear the firethe impalpable ashor the wrinkled body of the log,everything carries me to you,as if everything that exists,aromas, light, metals,were little boatsthat sailtoward those isles of yours that wait for me."

"I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it."