John Ciardi Quotes

There was a young lady from Gloucester
Who complained that her parents both bossed her,
So she ran off to Maine.
Did her parents complain?
Not at all
they were glad to have lost her. ~ John Ciardi

I once knew a word I forget
That mean "I am sorry we met
And I wish you the same."
It sounds like your name
But I haven't remember that yet. ~ John Ciardi

There is nothing wrong with sobriety in moderation. ~ John Ciardi

Tell me how much a nation knows about its own language, and I will tell you how much that nation knows about its own identity. ~ John Ciardi

Such perfect incompleteness, suggestion and ambiguity are among the most valuable devices of the skilled poet, means by which the poem opens to let us in. ~ John Ciardi

Translator's Note: When the violin repeats what the piano has just played, it cannot make the same sounds and it can only approximate the same chords. It can, however, make recognizably the same "music", the same air. But it can do so only when it is as faithful to the self-logic of the violin as it is to the self-logic of the piano. ~ John Ciardi

You don't have to suffer to be a poet. Adolescence is enough suffering for anyone ~ John Ciardi

Good writing tends to present evidence rather than judgments. When the evidence is well presented, the reader's judgments will agree with those implicit in the writing. But nothing is more disastrous to the communication between writer and reader than a series of implicit judgments with which the reader cannot agree or which he finds to be simply silly or for which he is given no evidence he can respect. ~ John Ciardi

Most Like an Arch This Marriage
Most like an arch - an entrance which upholds
and shores the stone-crush up the air like lace.
Mass made idea, and idea held in place.
A lock in time. Inside half-heaven unfolds.
Most like an arch - two weaknesses that lean
into a strength. Two fallings become firm.
Two joined abeyances become a term
naming the fact that teaches fact to mean.
Not quite that? Not much less. World as it is, what's strong and separate falters. All I do
at piling stone on stone apart from you
is roofless around nothing. Till we kiss
I am no more than upright and unset.
It is by falling in and in we make
the all-bearing point, for one another's sake,
in faultless failing, raised by our own weight. ~ John Ciardi

I have one head that wants to be good, And one that wants to be bad. And always, as soon as I get up, One of my heads is sad. ~ John Ciardi

Spontaneous is what you get after the seventeenth draft. ~ John Ciardi

What greater violence can be done to the poet's experience than to drag it into an early morning classroom and to go after it as an item on its way to a Final Examination? …It is the experience, not the Final Examination, that counts. ~ John Ciardi

What has any poet to trust more than the feel of the thing? Theory concerns him only until he picks up his pen, and it begins to concern him again as soon as he lays it down. ~ John Ciardi

To read a poem with no thought in mind but to paraphrase it into a single, simple and usually high-minded prose statement is the destruction of poetry. ~ John Ciardi

The success of the poem is determined not by how much the poet felt in writing it, but by how much the reader feels in reading it. ~ John Ciardi

A neighborhood is a residential area that is changing for the worse. ~ John Ciardi

Within a single scene, it seems to be unwise to have access to the inner reflections of more than one character. The reader generally needs a single character as the means of perception, as the character to whom the events are happening, as the character with whom he is to empathize in order to have the events of the writing happen to him. ~ John Ciardi

Poetry lies its way to the truth. ~ John Ciardi

Every word has a history. Every word has an image locked into its roots. ~ John Ciardi

A university is a reading and discussion club. If students knew how to use the library, they wouldn't need the rest of the buildings. The faculty's job, in great part, is to teach students how to use a library in a living way. All a student should really need is access to the library and a place to sleep. ~ John Ciardi

Nothing goes further toward a man's liberation than the act of surviving his need for character. ~ John Ciardi

Hell is the denial of the ordinary... ~ John Ciardi

It is easy enough to praise men for the courage of their convictions. I wish I could teach the sad young of this mealy generation the courage of their confusions. ~ John Ciardi

I'm smiled out, talked out, quipped out, socialized so far from any being, I need the weight of mortal silences to get realized back into myself. ~ John Ciardi

Love is the word used to label the sexual excitement of the young, the habituation of the middle-aged, and the mutual dependence of the old. ~ John Ciardi

And the time sundials tell
May be minutes and hours. But it may just as well
Be seconds and sparkles, or seasons and flowers.
No, I don't think of time as just minutes and hours.
Time can be heartbeats, or bird songs, or miles,
Or waves on a beach, or ants in their files
(They do move like seconds - just watch their feet go:
Tick-tick-tick, like a clock). You'll learn as you grow
That whatever there is in a garden, the sun
Counts up on its dial. By the time it is done
Our sundial - or someone's - will certainly add
All the good things there are. Yes, and all of the bad.
And if anyone's here for the finish, the sun
Will have told him - by sundial - how well we have done.
How well we have done, or how badly. Alas,
That is a long thought. Let me hope we all pass. ~ John Ciardi

The day will happen
whether or not you get up ~ John Ciardi

The Constitution gives every American the inalienable right to make a damn fool of himself. ~ John Ciardi

The public library is the most dangerous place in town ~ John Ciardi

Life is a " vale of tears" a period of trial and suffering, an unpleasant but necessary preparation for the afterlife where alone man could expect to enjoy happiness - Archibald T. MacAllister (The Inferno; Dante Alighieri translated by John Ciardi) ~ Dante Alighieri

He had his choice, and he liked the worst. ~ John Ciardi

If a man means his writing seriously, he must mean to write well. But how can he write well until he learns to see what he has written badly. His progress toward good writing and his recognition of bad writing are bound to unfold at something like the same rate. ~ John Ciardi

Who could believe an ant in theory? A giraffe in blueprint? Ten thousand doctors of what's possible Could reason half the jungle out of being. ~ John Ciardi

A carbonated wine foisted upon Americans (who else would drink it?) by winery ad agencies as a way of getting rid of inferior champagne by mixing it with inferior burgundy. ~ John Ciardi

The reader deserves an honest opinion. If he doesn't deserve it, give it to him anyhow. ~ John Ciardi

A savage is simply a human organism that has not received enough news from the human race. ~ John Ciardi

Boys are the cash of war. ~ John Ciardi

At the next vacancy for God, if I am elected, I shall forgive last the delicately wounded who, having been slugged no harder than anyone else, never got up again, neither to fight back, nor to finger their jaws in painful admiration. ~ John Ciardi

Gentility is what is left over from rich ancestors after the money is gone. ~ John Ciardi

Men marry what they need. I marry you. ~ John Ciardi

The promising young poets, the hopefuls? I'd name Richard Wilbur, Peter Viereck, Karl Shapiro, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell, John Ciardi...Leonard Bacon...but it is still too early to assertions. They're all 'in the field.' It remains to be seen how many will cross the finish line. ~ Robert Frost

I'm finding things out about myself as a person - as a writer - as I write, and so are the people who listen to what I do. But they have this additional aspect of how they take the stuff that I do, and so it broadens the work, and it creates this strange connection. ~ John Darnielle

I spent several years acquiring the obsessive, day-to-day discipline that's needed if you want to write professionally, then several more, highly valuable years studying fiction writing at the University of Iowa. ~ John Dalton

Stop making such a big deal about lard. It is no less healthy than other fats, and it is more delicious. Nothing makes as flaky or as delicious biscuits or piecrust as ones made with part lard. And there is simply nothing better for frying. You eat the rest of the animal (including parts that are likely much more offensive), so buy a tub of fresh lard to keep in your refrigerator. Use it and be proud that you are working to bust a stupid stigma about a completely natural ingredient. Don't engage the lard enemies, as more often than not, they have no fucking idea what they are talking about. Go beat your head against a wall instead. You'll end up happier. ~ John Currence

No, not officially. But you know what they say about Gunshot: the population never goes up and never goes down, because everytime a woman gets pregnant, a man leaves the town. ~ John Green

I think the best way to view the Gospels is to view them as a magnificent portrait being painted by Jewish artists to try to capture the essence of a God experience that they believe they had with Jesus of Nazareth. ~ John Shelby Spong

You know, the husband, John Bobbit, he formed a band after that whole thing. The Severed Parts," I tell him. "I'm pretty sure he did a lot of porn, too."
Jake just lies there, staring at me. The teasing in his eyes has been replaced with a serious, assessing look.
"What?" I say. God, boys are weird.
"How did you know that?" he asks. He actually sounds impressed.
"It's called the internet. You might try living in the twenty-first century sometime," I mumble. ~ Hannah Harrington

My eyelids felt like had tiny but chubby sleep faeries hanging on the lashes and pulling them closed ~ John Corwin

You cannot buy or win happiness. You must choose it. ~ John C. Maxwell

I don't believe in looking back. If you make a decision that you think is the proper one at a time, then that's the correct decision. ~ John Wooden

The United States made no secret of its desire to have the House of Saud bankroll Osama bin Laden's Afghan war against the Soviet Union during the 1980s, and Riyadh and Washington together contributed an estimated $3.5 billion to the mujahideen.5 However, U.S. and Saudi participation went far beyond this. ~ John Perkins

The goal is not for us to get through the Scriptures. The goal is to get the Scriptures through us. ~ John Ortberg

Values spoken without actions taken are merely slogans. ~ John F. Kerry

Creativity is our birthright. It is an integral part of being human, as basic as walking, talking and thinking. ~ John Daido Loori

There is but one question ultimately to be asked respecting every line you draw, Is it right or wrong? If right, it most assuredly is not a "free" line, but an intensely continent, restrained and considered line; and the action of the hand in laying it is just as decisive, and just as "free" as the hand of a first-rate surgeon in a critical incision. ~ John Ruskin

Long John Silver's wife, Short, who said to John, If the shoe fits ... Never got a dinner! ~ Red Buttons

My job is to give the president and secretary of defense military advice before they know they need it. ~ John W. Vessey, Jr.

I'm pretty resigned to the fact that I never hear music the way anyone else does, and I no longer find it surprising. ~ John Dieterich

I long for scenes where man has never trod; ... There to abide with my Creator, God. ~ John Clare

Help him, Adam
help him. Give him his chance. Let him be free. That's all a man has over the beasts. Free him! Bless him! ~ John Steinbeck

An answer is invariably the parent of a whole family of new questions. ~ John Steinbeck

I went to Broadway and I've been doing some fun guest spots with 'Entourage' and 'Glee' and I'm ready to have my own show. ~ John Stamos

Some whites, who had never really understood, were offended by this sudden death of their role as the "good white leading the poor black out of the jungle." Many of these were among the saddest people of our time, good-hearted whites who had dedicated themselves to helping black people become imitation whites, to "bringing them up to our level," without ever realizing what a deep insult this attitude can be. ~ John Howard Griffin

I have never really thought of him as a person, either ... A guy whose strings were broken, who didn't feel the root of his leaves of grass connected to the field, a guy who was cracked. Like me. ~ John Green

In him kindness and conscience are so large that they are almost faults. ~ John Steinbeck

Most of the bad taste I've been accused of has been generic bad taste; it's been making fun of an idea as opposed to a person. ~ John Cleese

Lette me stande to the maine chance. ~ John Lyly

I couldn't sing to save myself. Greg went to John after the audition and said, 'She's cute, but she can't sing very well' and he said, 'I know. We'll teach her. I just want her on the show'. ~ Dannii Minogue

He's going to save the world before he leaves it if it kills him. ~ John Le Carre

If you work at home, you're always on call in a way. ~ John Connolly

Traditionally, common social location meant that the two partners used the same family name. In recent years alternative patterns of naming have been developed, for reasons which are more convincing to feminists than they are to genealogists or to mail carriers. ~ John Howard Yoder

War is, after all, the universal perversion ... war stories, the pornography of war. ~ John Rae

Theology is a serious quest for the true knowledge of God, undertaken in response to His self-revelation, illumined by Christian tradition, manifesting a rational inner coherence, issuing in ethical conduct, resonating with the contemporary world and concerned for the greater glory of God. ~ John Stott

I'm a big, big reader of pretty much everything that Chuck Colson has written. And I consulted with him when I was making some decisions about running for the Senate in the first place. ~ John Thune

Keystone would allow us to transport 700,000 barrels of oil a day from our northern neighbor Canada to refineries in the United States. ~ John Barrasso

You cannot tell the enemy you're going to leave and expect the enemy to not - and expect to succeed. I mean, that's just a fundamental of warfare. ~ John McCain

As people gain more authority, they often develop a lack of patience in listening to those under them. A deaf ear is the first indication of a closed mind. ~ John C. Maxwell

Christ is the meritorious cause of the bestowing of those good gifts, faith and constancy unto martyrdom, upon you. ~ John Owen

Al Michaels is a good announcer. I think Keith Jackson is a terrific announcer. I always loved him on Monday Night Football. I never understood why they got rid of him. ~ John Turturro

Triage on a battlefield (where the word originated in the Napoleonic Wars) came down to three choices: Those that don't need help right now, those that can survive if they get help right now and those that are probably going to die whether they get help or not. ~ John Ringo

A sharp bolt of hunger hit Luther hard. His knees almost buckled, his poker face almost grimaced. For two weeks now his sense of smell had been much keener, no doubt a side effect of a strict diet. Maybe he got a whiff of Mabel's finest, he wasn't sure, but a craving came over him. Suddenly, he had to have something to eat. Suddenly, he wanted to snatch the bag from Kendall, rip open a package, and start gnawing on a fruitcake. ~ John Grisham