Kaveh Akbar Quotes

“...so
how shall I live now
in the unexpected present
I spent so long in a lover's
quarrel with my flesh
the peace seems over-
cautious too-polite”
― Kaveh Akbar, Calling a Wolf a Wolf

“Some people don’t even want to drink,
aren’t tempted by the pools of liquor
all around them. This seems
a selfishness. God loves the hungry
more than the full. Faith is a story
about people totally unlike you
building concrete walls around their beds.
Behind each of their faces: a slowly dying
animal. Do you feel summoned?
Do you feel heaven closing itself
to you like a clamshell snapping shut?”
― Kaveh Akbar, Calling a Wolf a Wolf

“may God beat
us awake scourge our brains to life may we measure every
victory
by the momentary absence of pain”
― Kaveh Akbar, Calling a Wolf a Wolf