Robert Hayden Quotes

It seemed to me as we were talking about Christ rising from the dead, the sun popped over the mountain. That was indicative of Christ rising - a new day. It just makes sense.

[My poetry is] a way of coming to grips with reality ... a way of discovery and definition. It is a way of solving for the unknowns.

As well have a talon as a finger, a muzzle as a mouth,
as well have a hollow as a heart.

As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen before. Writing a poem is always a process of discovery.

Art is not escape, but a way of finding order in chaos, a way of confronting life.

Your presence was shore where I rested/ released from the hoodoo of that dance, where I spoke/ with my true voice again.

What did I know, what did I know
of love's austere and lonely offices?

Shuttles in the rocking loom of history,
the dark ships move, the dark ships move,
their bright ironical names
like jests of kindness on a murderer's mouth

I believe it's true that one person can make a difference. But how much more difference 100 people make, or rather 99.

Midnight Special on a sabre track movering movering,
first stop Mercy and the last Hallelujah.

Runs falls rises stumbles on from darkness into darkness
and the darkness thicketed with shapes of terror
and the hunters pursuing and the hounds pursuing
and the night cold and the night long and the river
to cross and the jack-muh-lanterns beckoning beckoning
and blackness ahead