MRITYUNJAY JHA

“as if languagelessness was a step up, in evolution, from the chatter of consciousness.”
― Sharon Olds, Stag's Leap: Poems

“I did not know the work of mourning
Is like carrying a bag of cement
Up a mountain at night

The mountaintop is not in sight
Because there is no mountaintop
Poor Sisyphus grief

I did not know I would struggle
Through a ragged underbrush
Without an upward path

...

Look closely and you will see
Almost everyone carrying bags
Of cement on their shoulders

That’s why it takes courage
To get out of bed in the morning
And climb into the day.”
― Edward Hirsch, Gabriel: A Poem

“Robert Frost liked to distinguish between grievances (complaints) and griefs (sorrows). He even suggested that grievances, which are propagandistic, should be restricted to prose, “leaving poetry free to go its way in tears.”
― Edward Hirsch, How To Read A Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry

“Learn the rules, break the rules, make up new rules, break the new rules.”
― Marvin Bell