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“Have compassion for everyone you meet, even if they don't want it. What seems conceit, bad manners, or cynicism is always a sign of things no ears have heard, no eyes have seen.
You do not know what wars are going on down there where the spirit meets the bone.”
―
You do not know what wars are going on down there where the spirit meets the bone.”
―
“Every word you add dilutes the sentence.”
―
―
“I manage a toast to the Christmas tree
and one to the sweet absurdity
in the miracle of the verb to be.
Lucky you, lucky me.”
―
and one to the sweet absurdity
in the miracle of the verb to be.
Lucky you, lucky me.”
―
“Wherever it left us,
we were barely learning to live with it
when here came Flannery O'Connor and Hank Williams
to tell us that no one has ever been loved
the way everybody wants to be loved,
and that's hard. That's hard.
--last stanza of How Step by Step We Have Come to Understand”
― Time and the Tilting Earth: Poems
we were barely learning to live with it
when here came Flannery O'Connor and Hank Williams
to tell us that no one has ever been loved
the way everybody wants to be loved,
and that's hard. That's hard.
--last stanza of How Step by Step We Have Come to Understand”
― Time and the Tilting Earth: Poems
“He lives all alone now, in the home they bought,
and finally seems to be managing, more or less.
Not the way he was, of course, with her,
who lives alone now, too, at the same address.
- Separatio in Loco”
― Time and the Tilting Earth: Poems
and finally seems to be managing, more or less.
Not the way he was, of course, with her,
who lives alone now, too, at the same address.
- Separatio in Loco”
― Time and the Tilting Earth: Poems
“Time
goes
too
fast.
Come
home.”
―
goes
too
fast.
Come
home.”
―
“Who were many people coming together
cannot become one people falling apart.
Who dreamed for every child an even chance
cannot let luck alone turn doorknobs or not.
Whose law was never so much of the hand as the head
cannot let chaos make its way to the heart.
Who have seen learning struggle from teacher to child
cannot let ignorance spread itself like rot.
We know what we have done and what we have said,
and how we have grown, degree by slow degree,
believing ourselves toward all we have tried to become—
just and compassionate, equal, able, and free.”
― Some Jazz a While: Collected Poems
cannot become one people falling apart.
Who dreamed for every child an even chance
cannot let luck alone turn doorknobs or not.
Whose law was never so much of the hand as the head
cannot let chaos make its way to the heart.
Who have seen learning struggle from teacher to child
cannot let ignorance spread itself like rot.
We know what we have done and what we have said,
and how we have grown, degree by slow degree,
believing ourselves toward all we have tried to become—
just and compassionate, equal, able, and free.”
― Some Jazz a While: Collected Poems
“The day you took the test
I would have told you this:
that you had no time to listen to questions
hunting out the answers in your files
is surely the kind of irony
that poems are made of”
― Living on the Surface: New and Selected Poems
I would have told you this:
that you had no time to listen to questions
hunting out the answers in your files
is surely the kind of irony
that poems are made of”
― Living on the Surface: New and Selected Poems
“Have compassion for everyone you meet, even when they don't want it. What seems conceit, bad manners, or cynicism is always a sign of things no ears have heard, no eyes have seen. You do not know what wars are going on down there where the spirit meets the bone.”
―
―
“We have memorized America,
how it was born and who we have been and where.
In ceremonies and silence we say the words,
telling the stories, singing the old songs.
We like the places they take us. Mostly we do.”
― Some Jazz a While: Collected Poems
how it was born and who we have been and where.
In ceremonies and silence we say the words,
telling the stories, singing the old songs.
We like the places they take us. Mostly we do.”
― Some Jazz a While: Collected Poems
“as each of us wants the other
watching at the end,
as both want not to leave the other alone”
― Some Jazz a While: Collected Poems
watching at the end,
as both want not to leave the other alone”
― Some Jazz a While: Collected Poems
