When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. — John F. Kennedy
Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri commonly known by his pen name Dante Alighieri or simply Dante (1265 – 1321) Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, For the straightforward pathway had been lost. Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say What was this forest savage, …
Continue reading "Dante Alighieri — Excerpt From Inferno, Canto I"
Ross Gay — after Steve Scafidi The way the universe sat waiting to become, quietly, in the nether of space and time, you too remain some cellular snuggle dangling between my legs, curled in the warm swim of my mostly quietest self. If you come to be — And who knows? — I wonder, little …
Wisława Szymborska (July 02, 1923- February 01, 2012) I walk on the slope of a hill gone green. Grass, little flowers in the grass, as in a children’s illustration. The misty sky’s already turning blue. A view of other hills unfolds in silence. As if there’d never been any Cambrians, Silurians, rocks snarling at crags, …
William Stanley Merwin (September 30, 1927 – March 15, 2019) Inside this pencil crouch words that have never been written never been spoken never been taught they’re hiding they’re awake in there dark in the dark hearing us but they won’t come out not for love for time not for fire even when the dark …
Yusef Komunyakaa (April 29 1941 -) My lyre has fallen & broken, but I have my little tom-toms. Look, do you see those crows perched on the guardhouse? I don’t wish to speak of omens but sometimes it’s hard to guess. Life has been good the past few years. I know all seven songs of …
Continue reading "Yusef Komunyakaa – Orpheus At The Second Gate Of Hades"
Gabrielle Calvocoressi Come down to the water. Bring your snare drum, your hubcaps, the trash can lid. Bring every joyful noise you’ve held at bay so long. The fish have risen to the surface this early morning: flounder, shrimp, and every blue crab this side of Mobile. Bottom feeders? Please. They shine like your Grandpa …
Kenneth Patchen (December 13, 1911 - January 8, 1972) As we are so wonderfully done with each other We can walk into our separate sleep On floors of music where the milkwhite cloak of childhood lies O my lady, my fairest dear, my sweetest, loveliest one Your lips have splashed my dull house with the …
Continue reading "Kenneth Patchen – As We Are So Wonderfully Done With Each Other"
The life that I could still live, I should live, and the thoughts that I could still think, I should think. — Carl Jung
Transformation literally means going beyond your form. — Wayne Dyer
The truest philosophy, is not to long for anything in particular, but to accept everything as it comes, and find out the reason of it coming. — Marie Corelli
...If one looks long enough at almost anything, looks with absolute attention at a flower, a stone, the bark of a tree, grass, snow, a cloud, something like revelation takes place. — May Sarton
The most we can do is to write — intelligently, creatively, evocatively — about what it is like living in the world at this time. — Oliver Sacks
When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. — John F. Kennedy
