Reader > Reader's Quotes

“Love someone because their soul inspires you, not because you’re interested in the relief from loneliness and companionship they can provide. Anybody can do that. Not just anybody can show you to yourself.”
― Brianna Wiest

“It is very hard to show up as the person you want to be when you are surrounded by an environment that makes you feel like a person you aren’t.”
― Brianna Wiest, The Mountain Is You: Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self-Mastery

“I bet if we dusted her heart for fingerprints, we’d only find yours.”
― Rudy Francisco

“I loved you the same way that I learned how to ride a bike: Scared… but reckless.”
― Rudy Francisco

“I'm still learning to love the parts of me that no one claps for.”
― Rudy Francisco

“Instead of asking
why they left,
now I ask,
what beauty will I create
in the space the no longer
occupy?”
― Rudy Francisco

“I swear that when our lips touch, I can taste the next 60 years of my life.”
― Rudy Francisco

“Dear Hands, I get it. You like writing poetry. But you can’t bring a metaphor to a gunfight.”
― Rudy Francisco

“Some say, don't burn your bridges.

I say, if necessary,
let the kerosene
kiss it on the lips,

and watch it
turn to ash.

There's always more than one way
to cross the water.”
― Rudy Francisco

“You want to know how I got these scars. I swallowed my pride and then it crawled its way out of my mouth.”
― Rudy Francisco

“Some days I forget that my skin is not a panic room.”
― Rudy Francisco, Helium

“I love you in a language that I don’t fully understand. In words that I haven’t found enough courage to forklift out of my chest.”
― Rudy Francisco

“Loving you
was the last thing
I felt really good at.”
― Rudy Francisco, Helium

“My hobbies include: editing my life story, hiding behind metaphors, and trying to convince my shadow that I’m someone worth following.”
― Rudy Francisco, Helium

“Pour yourself into me and I will not let a drop of you hit the ground.”
― Rudy Francisco

“My biggest fear is forgetting why I fell in love with writing. My biggest dream is never allowing that to happen.”
― Rudy Francisco

“Speak

because your
voice is currency,

and their comfort isn't worth
your silence.”
― Rudy Francisco, I'll Fly Away

“I promise I will love you as if it’s the only thing I’ve ever done correctly.”
― Rudy Francisco, Helium

“Maybe this whole time, I already had the things I've been asking others to give me.”
― Rudy Francisco

“I wonder how long it took to convince
the first rifle that it could hold a note
instead of a bullet, but still fire into a crowd
and make everyone move”
― Rudy Francisco, Helium

“Sometimes I'm the mess.
Sometimes I'm the broom.
On the hardest days, I have to be both.”
― Rudy Francisco

“Simeona
My mother
wears her wrinkles
the way an ocean
wears a wave.
She is the only
body of water
that refuses
to let me drown”
― Rudy Francisco, Helium

“I enjoy....
laughing

for absolutely no reason at all,
but I don't allow myself to cry
as often as I need to.

I have solar-powered confidence
and a battery-operated smile.
My hobbies include: editing my life story,

hiding behind metaphors,
and trying to convince my shadow
that I'm someone worth following.

I don't know much,
but I do know this:
Heaven is full of music,

and God listens to my heartbeat”
― Rudy Francisco, Helium

“The most destructive instruments can still create a melody worth dancing to.”
― Rudy Francisco, Helium

“Fear is when we turn up the volume on
everything that might go wrong
and then allow it to speak louder than our courage.”
― Rudy Francisco, Excuse Me As I Kiss The Sky

“I loved you the same way
that I learned how to ride a bike.
Scared, but reckless.
With no training wheels
or elbow pads so my scars
can tell the story of how
I fell for you.”
― Rudy Francisco, Helium

“When you choose to be a poet, when you choose to spill like this, bleed like this, cry like this, your pain becomes an exhibit. A place for people to walk through and then leave when they are ready.

No one ever asks a museum if it's okay.”
― Rudy Francisco

“I held you the way a boat holds water.”
― Rudy Francisco, Helium

“I wonder if the next generation
will know water the way I did.
The way it ruins through the fingers,
the way it wrinkles the hands,
cools the skin, the way it freezes,
flakes and kisses the ground
on the cheek.

I wonder if my grandkids will
ever throw a penny in a fountain

and hear it splash”
― Rudy Francisco, Helium

“My chest is always full of questions, but your smile is a good answer”
― Rudy Francisco, Excuse Me As I Kiss The Sky