#poetry

Saki says that youth is like hors d'oeuvres: you are so busy thinking of the next courses you don't notice it. When you've had them, you wish you'd had more hors d'oeuvres. ↗

— Philip Larkin

#letters-to-monica #poet #poetry #writing #youth

A theology should be like poetry, which takes us to the end of what words and thoughts can do. ↗

— Karen Armstrong

#like #poetry #should #takes #theology

The thought of our past years in me doth breed Perpetual benediction: not indeed For that which is most worthy to be blest— Delight and liberty, the simple creed Of Childhood, whether busy or at rest, With new-fledged hope still fluttering in his breast. ↗

— William Wordsworth

#hope #poem #poetry #recollection #business

at first when the rain fell from the sky so wide and deep it smelled like sage, my favorite smell I went up on the plateau to watch it come to see the gifts it always brought but this rain changed from blue to black and left nothing. ↗

— Ally Condie

#matched #poetry #change

The Way It Is There’s a thread you follow. It goes among things that change. But it doesn’t change. People wonder about what you are pursuing. You have to explain about the thread. But it is hard for others to see. While you hold it you can’t get lost. Tragedies happen; people get hurt or die; and you suffer and get old. Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding. You don’t ever let go of the thread. ~ William Stafford ~ ↗

— William Stafford

#loss #poetry #change

Times change, as do our wills, What we are - is ever changing; All the world is made of change, And forever attaining new qualities. ↗

— Luís Vaz de Camões

#poetry #time #will #change

I can't think of a case where poems changed the world, but what they do is they change people's understanding of what's going on in the world. ↗

— Seamus Heaney

#change

Some people react physically to the magic of poetry, to the moments, that is, of authentic revelation, of the communication, the sharing, at its highest level...A good poem is a contribution to reality. The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it. A good poem helps to change the shape and significance of the universe, helps to extend everyone's knowledge of himself and the world around him. ↗

— Dylan Thomas

#change

Never worry about the reader, what the reader can understand. When you are writing, glance over your shoulder, and you’ll find there is no reader. Just you and the page. Feel lonely? Good! Assuming you can write clear English (or Norwegian) sentences, give up all worry about communication. If you want to communicate, use the telephone. To write a poem you have to have a streak of arrogance (…) when you are writing you must assume that the next thing you put down belongs not for reasons of logic, good sense, or narrative development, but because you put it there. You, the same person who said that, also said this. The adhesive force is your way of writing, not sensible connection. ↗

— Richard Hugo

#poetry #communication

Every man needs his Siren To check his courage and strength When he hears her song In his travels through the unknown. ↗

— Dejan Stojanovic

#dejan-stojanovic #literature #literature-quotes #poetry #poetry-quotes