Kenneth Patchen > Quotes

“Come now, my child, if we were planning to harm you, do you think we'd be lurking here beside the path in the very darkest part of the forest?”
― Kenneth Patchen

“The one who comes to question himself cares for mankind.”
― Kenneth Patchen

“There are so many little dyings
How do we know which one of them
is death?


”
― Kenneth Patchen

“All at Once Is What Eternity Is.”
― Kenneth Patchen, Wonderings

“Art is not to throw light but to be light...”
― Kenneth Patchen

“There are so many little dyings that it doesn't matter which of them is death. ”
― Kenneth Patchen

“God must have loved the people in power, for he made them so much like their own image of him.”
― Kenneth Patchen

“It's dark out, Jack, the stations out there don't identify themselves, we're in it raw-blind like burned rats, it's running out all around us, the footprints of the beast, one nobody has any notion of. The white and vacant eyes of something above there, something that doesn't know we exist. I smell heartbreak up there, Jack, a heartbreak at the center of things, and in which we don't figure at all.”
― Kenneth Patchen

“The Reason for Skylarks

It was nearly morning when the giant
Reached the tree of children.
Their faces shone like white apples
On the cold dark branches
And their dresses and little coats
Made sodden gestures in the wind.

He did not laugh or weep or stamp
His heavy feet. He set to work at once
Lifting them tenderly down
Into a straw basket which was fixed
By a golden strap to his shoulder.
Only one did he drop - a soft pretty child
Whose hair was the color of watered milk.
She fell into the long grass
And he could not find her
Though he searched until his fingers
Bled and the full light came.

He shook his fist at the sky and called
God a bitter name.
But no answer was made and the giant
Got down on his knees before the tree
And putting his hands about the trunk
Shook
Until all the children had fallen
Into the grass. Then he pranced and stamped
Them to jelly. And still he felt no peace.
He took his half-full basket and set it afire,
Holding it by the handle until
Everything had been burned. He saw now
Two men on steaming horses approaching
From the direction of the world
And taking a little silver flute
Out of his pocket he played tune
After tune until they came up to him.”
― Kenneth Patchen

“The question is not: do we believe in God? but rather: does God believe in us? And the answer is: only an unbeliever could have created our image of God; and only a false God could be satisfied with it.”
― Kenneth Patchen, The Journal of Albion Moonlight

“Ah I can see that....
You can see anything once you've been told it's there to see”
― Kenneth Patchen, The Journal of Albion Moonlight

“Never oppose what seems strange in yourself. That is the only part which is aware.”
― Kenneth Patchen, They Keep Riding Down All The Time

“Truth is always what they don't say.”
― Kenneth Patchen, Collected Poems

“This is the evening of the two-fisted prayer”
― Kenneth Patchen, Collected Poems

“The animal I wanted
Couldn't get into the world
I can hear it crying
When I sit like this away from life”
― Kenneth Patchen, Collected Poems

“You look nice in those old slacks, but in the raw you are Beauty herself.”
― Kenneth Patchen, The Journal of Albion Moonlight

“Man is not to direct or to be directed anymore than a tree or a cloud or a stone

Man is not to rule or be ruled anymore than a faith or a truth or a love

Man is not to doubt or to be doubted anymore than a wave or a seed or a fire

There is no problem in living which life hasn't answered to its own need

And we cannot direct, rule, or doubt what is beyond our highest ability to understand we can only be humble before it we can only worship ourselves because we are a part of it

The eye in the leaf is watching out of our fingers
The ear in the stone is listening through our voices
The thought of the wave is thinking in our dreams
The faith of the seed is building with our deaths”
― Kenneth Patchen, Collected Poems

“You, the woman; I, the man; this, the world:
And each is the work of all.

There is the muffled step in the snow; the stranger;
The crippled wren; the nun; the dancer; the Jesus-wing
Over the walkers in the village; and there are
Many beautiful arms around us and the things we know.

See how those stars tramp over the heavens on their sticks
Of ancient light: with what simplicity that blue
Takes eternity into the quiet cave of God, where Ceasar
And Socrates, like primitive paintings on a wall,
Look, with idiot eyes, on the world where we two are.

You, the sought for; I, the seeker; this, the search:
And each is the mission of all.

For greatness is only the drayhorse that coaxes
The built cart out; and where we go is reason.
But genius is an enormous littleness, a trickling
Of heart that covers alike the hare and the hunter.

How smoothly, like the sleep of a flower, love,
The grassy wind moves over night's tense meadow:
See how the great wooden eyes of the forrest
Stare upon the architecture of our innocence.

You, the village; I, the stranger; this, the road:
And each is the work of all.

Then, not that man do more, or stop pity; but that he be
Wider in living; that all his cities fly a clean flag...
We have been alone too long, love; it is terribly late
For the pierced feet on the water and we must not die now.


Have you ever wondered why all the windows in heaven were
broken?
Have you seen the homeless in the open grave of God's
hand?
Do you want to aquaint the larks with the fatuous music
of war?

There is the muffled step in the snow; the stranger;
The crippled wren; the nun; the dancer; the Jesus-wing
Over the walkers in the village; and there are
Many desperate arms about us and the things we know.”
― Kenneth Patchen

“Destiny is the music of the improbable. Were it otherwise, almost anyone could exist.”
― Kenneth Patchen, Poemscapes

“Literature is what you write when you think you should be saying something. Writing begins when you'd rather be doing anything else: and you've just done it.”
― Kenneth Patchen, The Journal of Albion Moonlight

“Nobody's a long time.”
― Kenneth Patchen, Poems of Humor & Protest

“What is a 'thing'? All is movement, a flowing. How stupid it is to speak of the 'mind'. There is a body; there is a mind: they are mixed up together. Shakespeare with a hole in his sock will not write the sonnet of a Shakespeare with socks intact.”
― Kenneth Patchen, The Journal of Albion Moonlight

“Greatness and Truth can never be in danger from these murdering wretches. To perform one's duty, be it now, be it clean, and be it done with humility… A man is a sacred thing. ANY ACTION OR THOUGHT WHICH INJURES THE HUMAN IMAGINATION IS EVIL.”
― Kenneth Patchen, Sleepers Awake

“You will protect with the last drop of someone else's blood what was never yours.”
― Kenneth Patchen, The Journal of Albion Moonlight

“I want to buy me a hat with a golden feather & a book with the confessions of God in it”
― Kenneth Patchen, The Journal of Albion Moonlight

“Everyman is me. I am his brother. No man is my enemy. I am Everyman and he is in and of me. This is my faith, my strength, my deepest hope, and my only belief.”
― Kenneth Patchen, Wonderings

“I have forgotten my mask, and my face was int it.”
― Kenneth Patchen, The Journal of Albion Moonlight

“The question is not: do we believe in God? but rather: does God believe in us? And the answer is: only an unbeliever could have created our image of God: and only a fake God could be satisfied with it.”
― Kenneth Patchen, The Journal of Albion Moonlight

“Our supper is plain but we are very wonderful.”
― Kenneth Patchen

“People don't want to be healed. They want a nice juicy wound that will show well when they put neon lights around it.”
― Kenneth Patchen, The Journal of Albion Moonlight