Contemporary Poetry Quotes

“Modern poetry, for me, began not in English at all but in Spanish, in the poems of Lorca.”
― W.S. Merwin

“The American identity has never been a singular one and the voices of poets invariably sing, in addition to their own, the voices of those around them.”
― Aberjhani, The American Poet Who Went Home Again

“I called it a baptism in flaming ink that forced me to shed my shyness about recognizing myself as a poet and to accept the fact that life had never given me any choice in the matter. And then I had to discover exactly what that meant.”
― Aberjhani, The American Poet Who Went Home Again

“Painted desert, ocean of color
sun's worshiper, moon's lover
picture of a coyote's voice
sandbox of angels, another toy.”
― Trine Daely, Life Games

“The City That Holds Me

The sidewalks I stumble on more than once
Make me feel like I am walking home.
The place cold enough to die for,

Yet I walk towards the next day without freezing.
The river that drowns my words,
As I wander its same stretch, up and down.

My chapels know my favourite corners,
Where I light my candles each good Sunday.”
― Laura Chouette, The Willow Song

“Pothole in the Sky

My veins ground too deep to become a statue,
And the flight is delayed too late—
So I take off again.

I take off without the vein of the city
That lifts me to heaven with a million lights
And a few streets in between.

The darkness blooms like a desert,
And in my aeroplane, I become a small flower,
Travelling too far and without sight.

Clouds outside windows become a stair frame,
And the dark blue of mornings drifts by,
While I dream of Paris and every thought

That drifted by.”
― Laura Chouette, The Willow Song

“Poem with Adjustments

And I write out of worry,
I write out of fear,
I write for writing's sake,
And I drown in between these motives.

I become a poet,
I become a lover,
I become a human,

And still, I seek to become a writer.

I become still in the seeking.”
― Laura Chouette, The Willow Song

“The collar sleeve I hold up to wish you farewell

The scars on each shirt that share a needle
Becomes a sea of white in between stitches.”
― Laura Chouette, The Willow Song

“A Laptop in One Room

The corners I turned became a city,
While remembering the sidewalks.

Each street I crossed turned into art,
For poets past than turned lines upside down.

Horizons in blue and grey
Became a shallow water's sight.”
― Laura Chouette, The Willow Song

“Tears Above a Keyboard

The words you built inside a mind
One day destroyed you.

You became a single tear
Without the memory.”
― Laura Chouette, The Willow Song

“My Lines

My lines cross tragedy,
Hope, and love;

A mere poetry of life
Keeps anyone alive.

I may wander along,
Yet I’ll be a part of it—

Life—I seek.”
― Laura Chouette, The Willow Song

“All The Ink I Wasted

All the ink I wasted
Climbing up ivory pages and cursive titles
Of whoever asked to buy and sell -
Words and souls and hope and pain.

All the nights I spent
Crying out to the world what I thought
Or blaming myself for not hearing back -
Worlds are crashing inside myself.

All the fights I fought
Calming my strife to succeed and feel
Overwhelming hopes and dreams in spare -
Wondering if I write my fate or dare to seal.

All the wasted words
Counting each number up I tried to spell
Only to be reminded of despair once again -
Worth is nothing nowadays with a price to sell.”
― Laura Chouette, The Willow Song

“What Other Can a Man Lay but Tragedy?

What other can a man lay but tragedy?
No other thing would be ripe in time.

Grief is a flower that blooms often,
And sorrow is the rain that waters it sometimes.

Each man reaps what he once sows—
With pain, and some with bitter ease.

The sky above every head of gloom
Grows thicker with clouds and earthly deeds.

The field does not bloom in summer
But on the last day of every man's each.”
― Laura Chouette, The Willow Song

“The Ghosts We Leave Behind

When I meet you again,
I will walk past you;
Leaving the ghost behind
That haunted me for years.

I will walk fast and steady,
Not looking back.
May I think about today
Or tomorrow? — Nobody knows.”
― Laura Chouette, The Willow Song

“I Will Go Back to Paris in Spring

I will go back to Paris in spring,
To see its life and not the still,
To watch the sky in a different hue,
With the same buildings at each rue.

I will walk and pass the same things by,
And wonder again with a sigh.
Till winter comes, it will be long,
Yet I wonder when I will come back along.”
― Laura Chouette, The Willow Song

“We Haunt the People We Love

We haunt the people that we love,
And we become ruins by doing so.
Chasing them down every line,
No matter if spoken or lived by it.

Running in circles, remembering them,
While watching ourselves turn into others' ghosts.
We haunt and live—
And we will outlive.”
― Laura Chouette, The Willow Song

“The Weight of Perception

I destroy myself by thinking about what I’m not;
And they who love me destroy themselves by thinking that I am.”
― Laura Chouette, The Willow Song

“The Tragedy of the Ordinary

The ordinariness is tragic—
Not because it happens all over again,
But when it doesn’t, it hurts every day.”
― Laura Chouette, The Willow Song

“Wasted Chances
I think life offers many chances,
And we waste most of them by never taking them—
(Just like untouched glasses of champagne.)”
― Laura Chouette, The Willow Song

“Unmoored

I set myself abound,
Like a new ship standing against the ocean;
The waves set free
By land of long imprisonment—
Alone.”
― Laura Chouette, The Willow Song

“Ireland

The land is scarred
by hills and roads of foreign.
Ways lead to false capitals
and answered calls of long-ago wars.”
― Laura Chouette, The Willow Song

“The Might of Me

I won’t write about
how I saved myself after you left—
The truth is
you never really stayed,
so I had nothing to save
but the might of me
and the could have beens
in every sentence since then.”
― Laura Chouette, The Willow Song

“I Want…

I want to inhale life,
Not just exhale it.
I want to feel alive,
Not just go on living.
I want to exist,
Not just fade away.”
― Laura Chouette, The Willow Song

“CheckFate by Stewart Stafford

Now hear this about Fate!
Its coils squeezing around you,
Directing your every move,
It is your second skin glue.

Scream unilateral lockdown,
As in Covid fever dream years,
Fate is your silent partner,
Lifer cellmate chained to all your fears.

As you hide in a shack in the Andes,
Fate's squatter gatecrashes to stay,
Tracked by a big cat in the Pampas,
Jaguar-spotted stalker in your DNA.

Fate deals its stacked tarot cards,
Catch-22's lotto winners - broke and few,
A drill sergeant drones' whipped parade
In lockstep as one of Fate's crew.

© 2025, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“You can't fully love, without a little violence”
― Richard Rizo, Random Acts of Love and Violence: A Journey Through Love, Heartbreak, and the Unknown

“The Dopamine Paradigm by Stewart Stafford

Never so connected,
Yet, never further apart,
A crowded room's isolation,
An aspic suitors' false start.

Fear and hatred everywhere,
When toxic ideologies stink,
Lab rats of our own making,
Reward hits go over the brink.

Throwing away tomorrow,
For a dopamine buzz today,
Home fort, don't multiply,
A eunuch future staggers away.

© 2025, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“The pale blue evening light of fading shadows crashes violently against the hill behind the town—facing radical orange and poisoned greens. It steams upward against a bluish sky that has swallowed every cloud in this modern summer May.”
― Laura Chouette, The Willow Song

“I Am Chameleon by Stewart Stafford

I am the shadow in your peripheral vision,
A rippling in the brilliantine matrix,
A wind's mesmerising, gossamer lullaby,
The speck of dust for a euphoric sneeze.

I am the shimmering, starry shell of night,
The bird that bathes in transient pools,
A cloud, shaped by myriad perspectives,
Flaming phoenix flower picked to re-sprout.

I am the tribal cave of rest and warmth,
The cleansing pool of birth and rebirth,
The fire of light, heat, and nourishment,
The beloved departed's shawl on cold nights.

I am soup and a sandwich on a rainy day,
Banquet feast of a gathering of the clans,
Caviar of the commonplace, regal remnants,
An after-dinner mint to soothe and satiate.

I am the floating shadow clinging to the corner of your eye.

© 2025, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“I see people. But I don’t see humanity.”
― Phoenix Moon, Emotional Roller Coaster: Confessions of a soul reborn from the ashes

“Women should have silk stockings and be fulfilled.
There is nothing like a silk stocking on a bad rainy day
When your hair is oily and you live in a cold Garçonnière
You put on the heater at six even though you’re supposed to keep it at three
It’s just another lemon tree,
Even on a Wednesday.”
― Ioana Cristina Casapu