Poetry
Quotes - I know you're tired but come, this is the way
“I
know you're tired but come, this is the way.”
―
Jalalu'l-din Rumi
“Go
into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it
has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself
whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write.
This
most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write?
Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if
you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple “I must,” then build your
life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest
and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse. Then
come close to Nature. Then, as if no one had ever tried before, try to say what
you see and feel and love and lose...
...Describe
your sorrows and desires, the thoughts that pass through your mind and your
belief in some kind of beauty - describe all these with heartfelt, silent,
humble sincerity and, when you express yourself, use the Things around you, the
images from your dreams, and the objects that you remember. If your everyday
life seems poor, don’t blame it; blame yourself; admit to yourself that you are
not enough of a poet to call forth its riches; because for the creator there is
not poverty and no poor, indifferent place. And even if you found yourself in
some prison, whose walls let in none of the world’s sounds – wouldn’t you still
have your childhood, that jewel beyond all price, that treasure house of
memories? Turn your attentions to it. Try to raise up the sunken feelings of
this enormous past; your personality will grow stronger, your solitude will
expand and become a place where you can live in the twilight, where the noise
of other people passes by, far in the distance. - And if out of this turning-within,
out of this immersion in your own world, poems come, then you will not think of
asking anyone whether they are good or not. Nor will you try to interest
magazines in these works: for you will see them as your dear natural
possession, a piece of your life, a voice from it. A work of art is good if it
has arisen out of necessity. That is the only way one can judge it.”
―
Rainer Maria Rilke
“I
may not always be with you
But
when we're far apart
Remember
you will be with me
Right
inside my heart”
―
Marc Wambolt, Poems from the Heart
“Love.
Because
of you, in gardens of blossoming
Flowers
I ache from the perfumes of spring.
I
have forgotten your face, I no longer
Remember
your hands; how did your lips
Feel
on mine?
Because
of you, I love the white statues
Drowsing
in the parks, the white statues that
Have
neither voice nor sight.
I
have forgotten your voice, your happy voice;
I
have forgotten your eyes.
Like
a flower to its perfume, I am bound to
My
vague memory of you. I live with pain
That
is like a wound; if you touch me, you will
Make
to me an irreperable harm.
Your
caresses enfold me, like climbing
Vines
on melancholy walls.
I
have forgotten your love, yet I seem to
Glimpse
you in every window.
Because
of you, the heady perfumes of
Summer
pain me; because of you, I again
Seek
out the signs that precipitate desires:
Shooting
stars, falling objects.”
―
Pablo Neruda
“Perhaps
the truth depends on a walk around the lake.”
―
Wallace Stevens
“Once,
poets were magicians. Poets were strong, stronger than warriors or kings —
stronger than old hapless gods. And they will be strong once again.”
―
Greg Bear
“Poetry
is eternal graffiti written in the heart of everyone.”
―
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Americus, Book I
“Some of you say, “Joy is greater than sorrow,” and others say, “Nay, sorrow is
the greater.”
But
I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together
they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the
other is asleep upon your bed.”
―
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
“April
is the cruelest month, breeding
lilacs
out of the dead land, mixing
memory
and desire, stirring
dull
roots with spring rain.”
―
T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land
“If
I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know
that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I
know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other
way?”
―
Emily Dickinson, Selected Letters
“Anon,
who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.”
―
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
“The
rain to the wind said,
You
push and I'll pelt.'
They
so smote the garden bed
That
the flowers actually knelt,
And
lay lodged--though not dead.
I
know how the flowers felt.”
―
Robert Frost
“She
walks in beauty, like the night
Of
cloudless climes and starry skies;
And
all that's best of dark and bright
Meet
in her aspect and her eyes...”
―
Lord Byron
“Come
away, O human child!
To
the waters and the wild
With
a faery, hand in hand,
For
the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.”
―
William Butler Yeats, The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats
“Music
is the universal language of mankind.”
―
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“Don't
use the phone. People are never ready to answer it. Use poetry.”
―
Jack Kerouac
“Love,
the poet said, is woman's whole existence.”
―
Virginia Woolf, Orlando
“Poetry
is the shadow cast by our streetlight imaginations.”
―
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
“Extinguish
my eyes, I'll go on seeing you.
Seal
my ears, I'll go on hearing you.
And
without feet I can make my way to you,
without
a mouth I can swear your name.
Break
off my arms, I'll take hold of you
with
my heart as with a hand.
Stop
my heart, and my brain will start to beat.
And
if you consume my brain with fire,
I'll
feel you burn in every drop of my blood.”
―
Rainer Maria Rilke
