#poe

That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse. ↗

— N.H. Kleinbaum

#poets #society #poets

To be a poet is to have a soul so quick to discern, that no shade of quality escapes it, and so quick to feel, that discernment is but a hand playing with finely-ordered variety on the chords of emotion--a soul in which knowledge passes instantaneously into feeling, and feeling flashes back as a new organ of knowledge. ↗

— George Eliot

#poetry #poets

A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits. ↗

— Robert A. Heinlein

#poets

We need to remember that we are all created creative and can invent new scenarios as frequently as they are needed. ↗

— Maya Angelou

#poets

The philosopher with his two eyes sees double, so is unable to see the unity of the Truth. ↗

— Mahmud Shabistari

#sufi-mystic-poetry #truth #unity

It seems only yesterday I used to believe there was nothing under my skin but light. If you cut me I could shine. ↗

— Billy Collins

#poem

How should we be able to forget those ancient myths that are at the beginning of all peoples, the myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into princesses; perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us. So you must not be frightened if a sadness rises up before you larger than any you have ever seen; if a restiveness, like light and cloudshadows, passes over your hands and over all you do. You must think that something is happening with you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand; it will not let you fall. Why do you want to shut out of your life any uneasiness, any miseries, or any depressions? For after all, you do not know what work these conditions are doing inside you. ↗

— Rainer Maria Rilke

#change #courage #depression #dragons #fears

True story This morning I jumped on my horse And went for a ride, And some wild outlaws chased me And shot me in the side. So I crawled into a wildcats cave To find a place to hide But some pirates found me sleeping there And soon they had me tied To a pole and built a fire Under me---I almost cried Till a mermaid came and cut me loose And begged to be my bride So I said id come back Wednesday But I must admit I lied. Then I ran into a jungle swamp But I forgot my guide And I stepped into some quicksand And no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get out, until I met A watersnake named Clyde Who pulled me to some cannibals Who planned to have me fried But an eagle came and swooped me up And through the air we flied But he dropped me in a boiling lake A thousand miles wide And you’ll never guess what I did then--- I DIED ↗

— Shel Silverstein

#poem #humor

I lean to you, numb as a fossil. Tell me I'm here. ↗

— Sylvia Plath

#poem

I tell you this to break your heart, by which I mean only that it break open and never close again to the rest of the world. ↗

— Mary Oliver

#poem