Brian Patten > Quotes

“The Giant rested back in his chair. "You've some stories left," he said. " I can smell them on your skin.”
― Brian Patten

“Dreams larger
than ourselves we killed, not wanting
our smallness measured against them."
(poem: Having Taken the Necessary Precautions)”
― Brian Patten, Grinning Jack: Selected Poems

“So many partings in the mind the heart Has not had the courage to follow through.”
― Brian Patten, Collected Love Poems

“And I began to understand How there is nothing complicated in this world That is not of my own making,”
― Brian Patten, Selected Poems

“scents gossip of previous winters.”
― Brian Patten, Selected Poems

“A man lives for as long as we carry him inside us”
― Brian Patten, Armada

“How long is a man’s life, finally? Is it a thousand days, or only one? One week, or a few centuries? How long does a man’s death last? And what do we mean when we say, ‘gone forever’?”
― Brian Patten, Selected Poems

“Sleep now, Alone in the sleeves of grief, Listening to clothes falling And your flesh touching God;”
― Brian Patten, Selected Poems

“Isolation disfigures men Who think their separateness superior.”
― Brian Patten, Selected Poems

“I reach into you to reach all mankind, And the deeper into you I reach The deeper glows elsewhere the world And sings of you. It says, To love is the one common miracle.”
― Brian Patten, Collected Love Poems

“When being lost seems So much more like being found, And you find all that is lost Is what weighed you down.”
― Brian Patten, Selected Poems

“When I was a child I sat an exam.
This test was so simple
There was no way i could fail.

Q1. Describe the taste of the Moon.

It tastes like Creation I wrote,
it has the flavour of starlight.

Q2. What colour is Love?

Love is the colour of the water a man
lost in the desert finds, I wrote.

Q3. Why do snowflakes melt?

I wrote, they melt because they fall
on to the warm tongue of God.

There were other questions.
They were as simple.

I described the grief of Adam
when he was expelled from Eden.
I wrote down the exact weight of
an elephant's dream

Yet today, many years later,
For my living I sweep the streets
or clean out the toilets of the fat
hotels.

Why? Because constantly I failed
my exams.
Why? Well, let me set a test.

Q1. How large is a child's
imagination?
Q2. How shallow is the soul of the
Minister for exams?”
― Brian Patten

“Afraid perhaps to come to where I’ve stopped in case you find into some slow and glowing countryside yourself escaping”
― Brian Patten, Selected Poems

“And you, mother, stood behind me,
impatient to be going,
old at twenty-three, alone,
thin overcoat flapping.”
― Brian Patten, Armada

“It is the same old story. Night owns the copyright”
― Brian Patten, Selected Poems

“And also it happens that there is nowhere to go and then There is somewhere to go, Then you have bypassed. And the years flare up and are gone, Quicker than a minute.”
― Brian Patten, Selected Poems