More on this book
Kindle Notes & Highlights
And I too wish you were in the woods, Because it’s no fun having a frustrated poet In the Dept. of Human Resources, believe me.
the lesson of the moth Don Marquis
My thoughts exactly.
we are like human beings used to be before they became too civilized to enjoy themselves
You're damn right.
but at the same time i wish there was something i wanted as badly as he wanted to fry himself
fish in their tin armor.
I like that.
A Million Young Workmen, 1915 Carl Sandburg
Moving.
Yes, this million of young workmen slaughtered one another and never saw their red hands.
And oh, it would have been a great job of killing and a new and beautiful thing under the sun if the million knew why they hacked and tore each other to death.
Such a great way of explaining the near uselessness of war.
Leaning by the counter, we steal a long slow kiss, tasting of coffee and cream.
Smooches will find their way into anything.
“you know” used as comma and period,
What a line.
but no one uses the King James anymore, only plain-speak versions, in which Jesus, raising Lazarus from the dead, says, “Dude, wake up,”
Laugh emoji, though I'm pretty sure she's insulting Americans.
After School on Ordinary Days Maria Mazziotti Gillan
Heartbreaking, beautiful.
a china cabinet that held no china, except thick and white and utilitarian, cups and saucers, poor people’s cups from the 5 & 10 cent store.
A little heartbreaking I gotta say.
The three of us would crowd around the radio, listening to the voices that brought a wider world into our Paterson apartment.
That's what stories do, girl. That's why I love them.
Theater William Greenway
I've always loved movie theaters. Great one.
the girl you love is there somewhere but you can’t find her, or if you do she’s with some jerk with muscles.
Nothing gives off a movie theater vibe more than that.
If you’re not getting the benefits that most people get from acting stupid, then you should go back to what you always were— being too smart for your own good.
The fox condemns the trap, not himself.
You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.
The soul of sweet delight can never be defiled.
Delight is unwavering.
The ancient poets animated all sensible objects with gods or geniuses, calling them by the names, and adorning them with the properties of woods, rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and whatever their enlarged and numerous senses could perceive.
you die without knowing whether anything you wrote was any good if you have to be sure don’t write
The most important part of writing anything.
Men are messy.
We’ve got no need for casinos— keeping the farm is enough to gamble on.
Nobody would have asked for the ice storm that takes down trees and knocks the power out, leaving nothing but two buckets of snow melting on the wood stove and candlelight so weak, the old man sitting at the kitchen table can hardly see to play cards. Yet how else but by the old woman’s laughter when he mistakes a jack for a queen would he look at her face in the half-light as if for the first time while the kitchen around them and the very cards he holds in his hands disappear?
Beauty can come from chaos. I love it.
I saw two trees embracing. One leaned on the other as if to throw her down. But she was the upright one. Since their twin youth, maybe she had been pulling him toward her all that time,
That imagery though.
The Unsaid Stephen Dunn
Sweet one.
“Dying is simple,” she said. “What’s worst is . . . the separation.”
:'(
The Discovery of Sex Debra Spencer
Funny and voluptuous.
Our tongues are in each other’s mouths, where they belong, home at last.
"Home at last." Gorgeous.
More things happening every second in New York, than Lutsk in a year.
celebration for no reason, which is always the best occasion.
The Love Cook Ron Padgett
Some beauty.
in which centuries of tree went up in continuous ghost-giving-up, without a crackle, into morning light.
Gorgeous line.
where the branches we brushed against let fall puffs of sparkling snow, quickly, in silence, like stolen kisses,
Beautiful and seductive.
zit-faced teen With lover zipping up your pants in haste Hearing your parents’ tread downstairs
Laugh emoji.
Time takes its time unraveling. But, still, You’ll wonder when your life ends: Huh? What happened?
Didn't come here to become depressed.
Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter Robert Bly
So short, yet it really explores the magic of a snowy night. I love this one.
Still Life Carl Sandburg
this time of year the stars come close some fierce.
I like the tension this poem builds while leading to this awesome stanza.
Time is always ahead of us, running down the beach, urging us on faster, faster, but sometimes we take off our watches, sometimes we lie in the hammock, caught between the mesh of rope and the net of stars, suspended, tangled up in love, running out of time.
I hate what time does to things. This stanza gives me a little hope.
The Last Waltz Alden Nowlan
Great poem.
My love’s even breathing, a lullaby for me.
Cool line.
When Death Comes Mary Oliver
Mary kills it again.
and each body a lion of courage, and something precious to the earth.
Yolo.
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.
You got that.
