Tropical Poetry Quotes

Nothing touches your skin of sweat
(meltdown of oceanic kisses)
when the purple light
whispers to the moon
in silent moonlit clarity ~ Bear Step

Mandelstam is the sort of poet who comes along very, very rarely. Even the two Russian poets whose work is often linked with his - Anna Akhmatova and Marina Tsvetaeva - though their work is more "urgent" than most American poetry, seem to me to operate at a lesser charge than Mandelstam. ~ Christian Wiman

I believe that every English poet should read the English classics, master the rules of grammar before he attempts to bend or break them, travel abroad, experience the horrors of sordid passion, and - if he is lucky enough - know the love of an honest woman. ~ Robert Graves

My life is a tree, yoke fellow of the earth, pledged by roots too deep for remembrance. To stand hard against the storm. To fill my place. (But high in the branches of my green tree there is a wild bird singing. Wing-free are the wings of my bird; she hath built no mortal nest) ~ Karle Wilson Baker

In the land of poetry commentary, you will encounter those who take poetry too lightly, and those who take poetry too seriously. The former will give you no real indication of their true opinion of the merits of the poem, while the latter shall reject it out of hand, or be entirely unsatisfied until you write it to their liking. Neither are worth paying attention to. ~ Jasper Sole

Death is something you can add to every day. ~ Kathleen Ossip

There is also poetry written to be shouted in a square in front of an enthusiastic crowd. This occurs especially in countries where authoritarian regimes are in power. ~ Eugenio Montale

She chose books because they never left her lonely the way that Kirk had left her lonely. BEcause company was often nothing of the kind, whereas a good book always was.
She chose books for the smell of fresh-pressed pages, for the yellow-brown musk of library mould, but always for the breathy kiss of paper rustling. She chose books because some of the held prose that made her weep, or poetry that winded her, and words that mae her heart skip beats.
She chose books because some came readey-made with characters that seemed like perfect versions of hrself, all of them little proofs that somehow, somewhere, it might just be possible for her to be better: to be popular, powerful, sexy and smart.
She chose books because they lied to her with more conviction than people ever had. ~ Dan Micklethwaite

Every now and then I read a poem that does touch something in me, but I never turn to poetry for solace or pleasure in the way that I throw myself into prose. ~ J.K. Rowling

but if you love us
choose a younger bed
for I cannot bear
to live with you when I am the older one ~ Sappho

The madder I get the more I'm a bore;
Don't go - I'll explain what I'm boring you for.
I've been known to discourse to myself by the sea,
On how boring it is being as boring as me.
And if - from politeness - some interest you feign,
Then I may make an effort and bore you again.
But usually my audiences tend to disperse,
So I sit down and bore myself writing a verse. ~ Patrick Woodroffe

Contrasts
The windows of my poetry are wide open on the boulevards and in the shop windows
Shine
The precious stones of light
Listen to the violins of the limousines and the xylophones of the linotypes
The sketcher washes with the hand-towel of the sky
All is color spots
And the hats of the women passing by are comets in the conflagration of the evening
Unity
There's no more unity
All the clocks now read midnight after being set back ten minutes
There's no more time.
There's no more money.
In the Chamber
They are spoiling the marvelous elements of raw material
("Contrasts") ~ Blaise Cendrars

She wore her scars
as her best attire.
A stunning dress
made of hellfire. ~ Daniel Saint

Tonight I see no spheres, but project myself
and gaze back, an important trick
because the goal is to be on both sides of the poem,
shuttling between the you and I. ~ Ben Lerner

A certain construct of emotions that really define who you are and who you will become and I feel very much that my childhood is very alive inside of me, very close to me, very much part of me. And it's a sometimes painful, sometimes joyous inexhaustible resource for poetry. ~ Edward Hirsch

The thought of our past years in me doth breed Perpetual benediction: not indeed For that which is most worthy to be blest - Delight and liberty, the simple creed Of Childhood, whether busy or at rest, With new-fledged hope still fluttering in his breast. ~ William Wordsworth

Good poetry reveals the beauty of joy and tragedy. ~ Debasish Mridha

I constantly regretted having to cut out bits of intense poetry. But one mustn't, at any cost, be seduced by an attractive idea if it hasn't got its right place. ~ Jean Cocteau

Pity that child who was born near Rouen,
His only crime, to arrive deformed. ~ E.A. Bucchianeri

Sadness taught me to let someone hurt me and yet still talk beautifully about them. ~ Harlrey Biala

I am sore wounded but not slain
I will lay me down and bleed a while
And then rise up to fight again ~ John Dryden

I love you most in that place between coffee and sleep. ~ Atticus Poetry

Boston: Their hotels are bad. Their pumpkin pies are delicious. Their poetry is not so good. ~ Edgar Allan Poe

If someone knocks on your door, my friend,
and something in your blood beats and rests not
and water in its stem, trembling,
the source is a liquid harmony.
If someone knocks on your door and still
you have time to be beautiful
and fits all April in a rose
and rose bleeds the day.
If someone knocks on your door one morning
sound of doves and bells
and still believe in pain and poetry.
If still life is truth and verse exists.
If someone knocks on your door and you are sad,
open, it is love, my friend. ~ Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Well, let them seize on all they can;
One treasure still is mine,
A heart that loves to think on thee,
And feels the worth of thine. ~ Anne Bronte

There's poetry in being the band that can sell out Wembley but also makes a record in a garage. I don't like doing what people expect me to do. ~ Dave Grohl

There is darkness in light, there is pain in joy, and there are thorns on the rose. ~ Cate Tiernan

The Triumph Of Achilles

In the story of Patroclus
no one survives, not even Achilles
who was nearly a god.
Patroclus resembled him; they wore
the same armor.

Always in these friendships
one serves the other, one is less than the other:
the hierarchy
is always apparent, though the legends
cannot be trusted--
their source is the survivor,
the one who has been abandoned.

What were the Greek ships on fire
compared to this loss?

In his tent, Achilles
grieved with his whole being
and the gods saw
he was a man already dead, a victim
of the part that loved,
the part that was mortal. ~ Louise Gluck

For even bad poetry has relevance for what it does not say for what it leaves out. ~ Lawrence Ferlinghetti

In her heart and soul she set fire to all things that held her back and from the ashes she stepped into who she always was. ~ Atticus Poetry

Things change, time changes. People change, life changes. Time changes things, life changes people. ~ Aline Alzime

I do not cry because I have done that before and it did not make anything softer. ~ Blythe Baird

Witch-heart, are you gold or black? ~ Amy Lowell

THE POETRY OF LIFE RICHARD CHIZMAR I ~ Michael Bailey

My falling in love with spoken word poetry definitely came out of that time period where all the adults around me were failing to supply me with any answers. Everyone was too busy dealing with things that were more important. I was pretty lost and invisible. And all of a sudden, this world opened up where I could get on stage and perform in front of my peers. People would listen to me and see me, and people would say, "That thing you created was important." And that was so validating and necessary at that specific moment. ~ Sarah Kay

To write poetry and to commit suicide, apparently so contradictory, had really been the same, attempts at escape. ~ John Fowles

kisses explode
when...
someone
believes in me

when my heart cries out
a song of thanks
to yours. ~ Sanober Khan

Twas the night before Thanksgiving.
All the food's in the oven.
And I'm in the bedroom performin' self lovin'. ~ Craig Ferguson

I am fascinated by the engineering. The science of constructing and understanding why it stands. And I am drawn by the madness, the beauty, the theatricality, the poetry and soul of the wire. And you cannot be a wire-walker without mingling those two ways of seeing life. ~ Philippe Petit

All you need is
One candle
To create a flame
That can last
Forever ~ Ambica Uppal

Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends.
Bernard, The Waves ~ Virginia Woolf

If you grow corn or trade in pigs or write poetry then you go to Iowa City." "That's why I haven't been. ~ Ann Patchett

Poets are shameless with their experiences: they exploit them. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Pascal," said Dr. Meescham, "had it that since it could not be proven whether God existed, one might as well believe that he did, because there was everything to gain by believing and nothing to lose. This is how it is for me. What do I lose if I choose to believe? Nothing!"
"Take this squirrel, for instance. Ulysses. Do I believe he can type poetry? Sure, I do believe it. There is much more beauty in the world if I believe such a thing is possible. ~ Kate DiCamillo

love is myself in the mirror.
i will see love every time. ~ AVA.

And all the hurts and scars / Of everyday were healed, and I would sleep / Safe with the good-night memory of stars. ~ Jane Merchant

Stars are out and there is sea
enough beneath the glistening earth
to bear me toward the future
which is not so dark. I see. ~ Frank O'Hara

Oh I know it's cliché but yeah they say that great men make it in-
To places few others who even do take the risk've ever been ~ Criss Jami

I must study war and politics so that my children shall be free to study commerce, agriculture and other practicalities, so that their children can study painting, poetry and other fine things. ~ John Adams