Kate Baer > Quotes

“How the dead must cringe at our resistance to look as if we've lived.”
― Kate Baer, I Hope This Finds You Well: Poems

“For now just remember how you felt the day you were born: desperate for magic, ready to love.”
― Kate Baer, What Kind of Woman

“What kind of man does not give up his time, his many pleasures, but hands them over without a sound. What kind of man bends to hold them in their suffering, in their questions, in their garbled turns of phrase. What kind of man admits his failures, turns over his heavy stones, stands at the feet of grief and wanting does not turn away. What kind of man becomes a father. A lasting place. A steady ship inside a tireless storm.”
― Kate Baer, What Kind of Woman: Poems

“You do not have to choose
one or the other: a dream or a dreamer, the
bird or the birder. You may be a woman of
commotion and quiet. Magic and brain.

You can be a mother and a poet. A wife and
a lover. You can dance on the graves you dug
on Tuesday, pulling out the bones of yourself
you began to miss.”
― Kate Baer, What Kind of Woman: Poems

“To Take Back a Life

First, you must learn desire. Hold its
fruit in your hands. Unmarry it from
the hunger to be held, to be wanted, to
be called from the streets like the family
dog. You are not a 'good girl.' You are not
somebody's otherness. This is not a dress
rehearsal before a better kind of life.

Pick up your heavy burdens and leave
them at the gate. I will hold the door for
you.”
― Kate Baer, What Kind of Woman: Poems

“What is the word for when the light leaves
the body? What is the word for when it, at
last, returns?”
― Kate Baer, What Kind of Woman: Poems

“Like a Wife

The week before my wedding, my friend's dad
said: just don't get fat, like other wives do.

And so I brined him in a deep salt bath, added
thyme and celery. Devoured him whole, in one
big bite, so he could see just how hungry a
woman can be.”
― Kate Baer, What Kind of Woman: Poems

“Nothing Tastes as Good as Skinny Feels Unless you count your grandmother’s cake, hand mixed while she waits for the sound of your breath at the door. Or if you consider the taste of the sea, arms raised while you enter, salt at your lips. Or maybe you’ve forgotten the taste of a lover, your mouth on his skin. I ask—have you ever tasted the cool swill of freedom? The consuming rush of a quiet, radical love.”
― Kate Baer, What Kind of Woman

“This is not a dress rehearsal before a better kind of life. Pick up your heavy burdens and leave them at the gate. I will hold the door for you.”
― Kate Baer, What Kind of Woman

“At any given moment there is someone getting
what they always wanted.

I know no quicker way to ruin a day
than to dwell on this.”
― Kate Baer, What Kind of Woman: Poems

“I wanted art / poetry was hidden in so much in so many ways”
― Kate Baer, I Hope This Finds You Well: Poems

“women
want to
live
without fear
For thousands of years
We were not believed
this
is
what we
carry”
― Kate Baer, I Hope This Finds You Well: Poems

“We expect so much of children, hovering above them like giant, invincible gods. What a racket to discover as an adult, how little we have to pass down.”
― Kate Baer, And Yet: Poems

“(Did you know when you bait a deer it’s called a violation, but when you poison a girl it’s called a date.)”
― Kate Baer, What Kind of Woman

“Experience will teach you two things: you are the mother and it's okay to let them go up the slide.”
― Kate Baer, What Kind of Woman: Poems

“To witness one life's miserable devastation and see her reach, instead, for joy.”
― Kate Baer, And Yet: Poems

“The Women Who Walk Us Home

The ones who arrive with a bag of clothes, four
tired lemons, half a story from her sister's trip to
Paraguay. The ones who keep our secrets and
whose secrets we keep in potted plants, in
every ocean we've ever known. The ones who
know our husbands, their little pleasures. Our
lovers and our scars. The ones who stay, hope
like a moth. Who stare into the gaping tomb
and are not afraid of its unveiling. The ones who
will be there, even then (even then), to walk us
home.”
― Kate Baer, What Kind of Woman: Poems

“Let your life rest on what is already good.”
― Kate Baer, And Yet: Poems

“In the morning, I take your picture in front of the sign, gaps in your teeth. I do not say a life without you is not worth living. I do not say I've memorized every inch of your frame. Instead, I wave at your hand waving. Instead, I say goodbye.”
― Kate Baer, What Kind of Woman: Poems

“When someone asks for the secret to a happy marriage, remember you don't know. This is not a happy ending. This is not a fairy tale. This is the beginning of a life you haven't met.”
― Kate Baer, What Kind of Woman: Poems

“Unclasp the thought of leaving, tie it to the door.”
― Kate Baer, What Kind of Woman: Poems

“It's just another day in the good-bad, bad-good earth machine.”
― Kate Baer, And Yet: Poems

“Ode to My Desire

I have always been hungry; fingers dipped
in sugar, salt across my lips. Four children
have passed through my body and still here
I am, asking for your hands on my hips,
voice in my ear. For melon and honey cream.
For you to not make love to me. Take me—

but wait until I plead. There is nothing like
the impatient thrum of wanting. All legs
and foaming mouth.

In hallways I play a game called 'kissing,'
imagining every woman as a lover, every man
with his mouth on mine. How different
they must look when they are in heat.”
― Kate Baer, What Kind of Woman: Poems

“Sometimes I imagine what it’d be like to show you I’m alive. The thrill of it. The sharp inhale. The nerve exposed. The bone.”
― Kate Baer, What Kind of Woman

“This is not a dress rehearsal for a better life.”
― Kate Baer, What Kind of Woman: Poems

“You can dance on the graves you dug on Tuesday, pulling out the bones of yourself you began to miss.”
― Kate Baer, What Kind of Woman

“I could ask you to love me instead i hope you meet the earth where she bruises and know your place in the history of things”
― Kate Baer, I Hope This Finds You Well: Poems

“What time will you be home? What time do you think you may be home? What time should we wait for you outside on the lawn while the pasta boils over and the baby cries because he misses you? Oh, before I go- what time will you be home?”
― Kate Baer, What Kind of Woman: Poems

“Transfiguration I dreamt myself into a mother, but when I became her, I had to dream her back into a woman back into a woman back into a woman again. Good Mother She lies on her back, open shirt like a wound, and waits for the start of her baby crying.”
― Kate Baer, What Kind of Woman

“Moon Song You are not an evergreen, unchanged by the pitiless snow. You are not a photo, a brand, a character written for sex or house or show. You do not have to choose one or the other: a dream or a dreamer, the bird or the birder. You may be a woman of commotion and quiet. Magic and brain. You can be a mother and a poet. A wife and a lover. You can dance on the graves you dug on Tuesday, pulling out the bones of yourself you began to miss. You can be the sun and the moon. The dance a victory song.”
― Kate Baer, What Kind of Woman