A corner draft fluttered the flame, and the white fever of temptation, upswept its angel wings that cast , a cruciform shadow. |
Art has two constant, two unending concerns: It always meditates on death and thus always creates life. All great, genuine art resembles and continues the Revelation of St John. |
As in an explosion, I would erupt with all the wonderful things I saw and understood in this world. |
Even so, one step from my grave, I believe that cruelty, spite, The powers of darkness will in time, Be crushed by the spirit of light. |
I come here to speak poetry. It will always be in the grass. It will also be necessary to bend down to hear it. It will always be too simple to be discussed in assemblies. |
I don't like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and it isn't of much value. Life hasn't revealed its beauty to them. |
I have been writing in spurts, bit by bit. It is incredibly difficult. Everything is corroded, broken, dismantled; everything is covered with hardened layers of accumulated insensitivity, deafness, entrenched routine. It is disgusting. |
I think that if the beast who sleeps in man could be held down by threats of any kind, whether of jail or retribution, then the highest emblem of humanity would be the lion tamer, not the prophet who sacrified himself. |
Immensely grateful, touched, proud, astonished, abashed. |
In view of the meaning given to this honor in the community to which I belong, I should abstain from the undeserved prize that has been awarded to me. Do not meet my voluntary refusal with ill will. |
Love is not weakness. It is strong. Only the sacrament of marriage can contain it. |
Our evenings are farewells. Our parties are testaments. So that the secret stream of suffering. May warm the cold of life. |
Poetry is a rich, full-bodied whistle, cracked ice crunching in pails, the night that numbs the leaf, the duel of two nightingales, the sweet pea that has run wild, Creation's tears in shoulder blades. |
Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us. |
Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us. |