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The Madness Vase Quotes
The Madness Vase
by
Andrea Gibson3,080 ratings, 4.48 average rating, 249 reviews
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The Madness Vase Quotes
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“The nutritionist said I should eat root vegetables.
Said if I could get down thirteen turnips a day
I would be grounded, rooted.
Said my head would not keep flying away
to where the darkness lives.
The psychic told me my heart carries too much weight.
Said for twenty dollars she’d tell me what to do.
I handed her the twenty. She said, “Stop worrying, darling.
You will find a good man soon.”
The first psycho therapist told me to spend
three hours each day sitting in a dark closet
with my eyes closed and ears plugged.
I tried it once but couldn’t stop thinking
about how gay it was to be sitting in the closet.
The yogi told me to stretch everything but the truth.
Said to focus on the out breath. Said everyone finds happiness
when they care more about what they give
than what they get.
The pharmacist said, “Lexapro, Lamicatl, Lithium, Xanax.”
The doctor said an anti-psychotic might help me
forget what the trauma said.
The trauma said, “Don’t write these poems.
Nobody wants to hear you cry
about the grief inside your bones.”
But my bones said, “Tyler Clementi jumped
from the George Washington Bridge
into the Hudson River convinced
he was entirely alone.”
My bones said, “Write the poems.”
― The Madness Vase
Said if I could get down thirteen turnips a day
I would be grounded, rooted.
Said my head would not keep flying away
to where the darkness lives.
The psychic told me my heart carries too much weight.
Said for twenty dollars she’d tell me what to do.
I handed her the twenty. She said, “Stop worrying, darling.
You will find a good man soon.”
The first psycho therapist told me to spend
three hours each day sitting in a dark closet
with my eyes closed and ears plugged.
I tried it once but couldn’t stop thinking
about how gay it was to be sitting in the closet.
The yogi told me to stretch everything but the truth.
Said to focus on the out breath. Said everyone finds happiness
when they care more about what they give
than what they get.
The pharmacist said, “Lexapro, Lamicatl, Lithium, Xanax.”
The doctor said an anti-psychotic might help me
forget what the trauma said.
The trauma said, “Don’t write these poems.
Nobody wants to hear you cry
about the grief inside your bones.”
But my bones said, “Tyler Clementi jumped
from the George Washington Bridge
into the Hudson River convinced
he was entirely alone.”
My bones said, “Write the poems.”
― The Madness Vase
“The trauma said, ‘Don’t write these poems.
Nobody wants to hear you cry about the grief inside your bones.”
― The Madness Vase
Nobody wants to hear you cry about the grief inside your bones.”
― The Madness Vase
“My mouth is a fire escape.
The words coming out
don’t care that they are naked.
There is something burning in there.”
― The Madness Vase
The words coming out
don’t care that they are naked.
There is something burning in there.”
― The Madness Vase
“..when a war ends, what does that look like exactly?
do the cells in the body stop detonating themselves?
does the orphanage stop screaming for its mother?
when the sand in the desert has been melted down to glass
and our reflection is not something we can stand to look at
does the white flag make for a perfect blindfold?
yesterday i was told a story
about this little girl in Iraq, six-years-old,
who cannot fall asleep
because when she does
she dreams of nothing
but the day she watched her dog
eat her neighbor's corpse.
if you told her war is over
do you think she can sleep?”
― The Madness Vase
do the cells in the body stop detonating themselves?
does the orphanage stop screaming for its mother?
when the sand in the desert has been melted down to glass
and our reflection is not something we can stand to look at
does the white flag make for a perfect blindfold?
yesterday i was told a story
about this little girl in Iraq, six-years-old,
who cannot fall asleep
because when she does
she dreams of nothing
but the day she watched her dog
eat her neighbor's corpse.
if you told her war is over
do you think she can sleep?”
― The Madness Vase
“Remind me that the most fertile lands were built by the fires of volcanoes.”
― The Madness Vase
― The Madness Vase
“My mouth is a fire escape.
The words coming out
don't care that they are naked.
There is something burning in here.
When it burns I hold my own shell to my ear,
listen for the parade from when I was seven,
when the man who played the bagpipes
wore a skirt.
He was from Scotland.
I wanted to move there.
Wanted my spine to be the spine
of an unpublished book,
my faith the first and last page.
The day my ribcage became monkey bars
for a girl hanging on my every word
they said, "You are not allowed to love her."
Tried to take me by the throat
to teach me, "You are not a boy."
I had to unlearn their prison speak,
refusing to make wishes on the star
on the sheriff's chest.
I started taking to the stars in the sky instead.
I said, "Tell me about the big bang."
The stars said, "It hurts to become.”
― The Madness Vase
The words coming out
don't care that they are naked.
There is something burning in here.
When it burns I hold my own shell to my ear,
listen for the parade from when I was seven,
when the man who played the bagpipes
wore a skirt.
He was from Scotland.
I wanted to move there.
Wanted my spine to be the spine
of an unpublished book,
my faith the first and last page.
The day my ribcage became monkey bars
for a girl hanging on my every word
they said, "You are not allowed to love her."
Tried to take me by the throat
to teach me, "You are not a boy."
I had to unlearn their prison speak,
refusing to make wishes on the star
on the sheriff's chest.
I started taking to the stars in the sky instead.
I said, "Tell me about the big bang."
The stars said, "It hurts to become.”
― The Madness Vase
“Love
isn't always magic.
But if I offered my body to the magician,
if I told him to cut me in half
so after that I could come to you whole
and ask for you back
would you listen
for this dark alley love song?
For the winter we heated our home
from the steam off our own bodies?”
― The Madness Vase
isn't always magic.
But if I offered my body to the magician,
if I told him to cut me in half
so after that I could come to you whole
and ask for you back
would you listen
for this dark alley love song?
For the winter we heated our home
from the steam off our own bodies?”
― The Madness Vase
“I wish for a heart you can see straight through, for a voice that glows in the dark, and a few really good friends to say, “That’s the way to go.”
― The Madness Vase
― The Madness Vase
“It's turning the thunder into grace,
knowing sometimes the break in your heart
is like the hole in the flute.
Sometimes it's the place
where the music comes through.”
― The Madness Vase
knowing sometimes the break in your heart
is like the hole in the flute.
Sometimes it's the place
where the music comes through.”
― The Madness Vase
“Picasso said he'd paint with his own wet tongue
on the dusty floor of a jail cell if he had to.
We have to create.
It is the only thing louder than destruction.
It's the only chance the bard are gonna break,
our hands full of color
reaching towards the sky,
a brush stroke in the dark.
It is not too late.
That starry night
is not yet dry.”
― The Madness Vase
on the dusty floor of a jail cell if he had to.
We have to create.
It is the only thing louder than destruction.
It's the only chance the bard are gonna break,
our hands full of color
reaching towards the sky,
a brush stroke in the dark.
It is not too late.
That starry night
is not yet dry.”
― The Madness Vase
“Let me say right now for the record,
I’m still going to be here
asking this world to dance,
even if it keeps stepping on my holy feet.
You, you stay here with me, okay?
You stay here with me.
Raising your bite against the bitter dark,
your bright longing,
your brilliant fists of loss.
Friend, if the only thing we have to gain in staying is each other,
my god that is plenty
my god that is enough
my god that is so so much for the light to give
each of us at each other’s backs
whispering over and over and over,
“Live. Live. Live.”
― The Madness Vase
I’m still going to be here
asking this world to dance,
even if it keeps stepping on my holy feet.
You, you stay here with me, okay?
You stay here with me.
Raising your bite against the bitter dark,
your bright longing,
your brilliant fists of loss.
Friend, if the only thing we have to gain in staying is each other,
my god that is plenty
my god that is enough
my god that is so so much for the light to give
each of us at each other’s backs
whispering over and over and over,
“Live. Live. Live.”
― The Madness Vase
“I like imagining your body is Saturn,
my body ten thousand rings wrapped around you.”
― The Madness Vase
my body ten thousand rings wrapped around you.”
― The Madness Vase
“Some days my heart beats so fast
my ribcage sounds like a fucking railroad track
and my breath is a train I just can't catch.”
― The Madness Vase
my ribcage sounds like a fucking railroad track
and my breath is a train I just can't catch.”
― The Madness Vase
“Listen, I know you run your mouth so your mind can rest.”
― The Madness Vase
― The Madness Vase
“It is incredible what kind of mess I can make
with a nine-hour drive and an unanswered text.”
― The Madness Vase
with a nine-hour drive and an unanswered text.”
― The Madness Vase
“I started talking to the stars in the sky instead. I said, “Tell me about the big bang.” The stars said, “It hurts to become.”
― The Madness Vase
― The Madness Vase
“If love did not exist I would be so goddamn sane my poems would be billboards. Suburbia would be enough. I would not have to gut myself to find my spine crushed into powder and brushed on her cheekbones. My hair would not be a hummingbird’s nest. My mind would not have to move so fast to rest.”
― The Madness Vase
― The Madness Vase
“Tell me we'll be naming our children Beautiful and nothing else.”
― The Madness Vase
― The Madness Vase
“My mother says it is totally fine
if I blow off steam
as long as I speak in an octave
my kindness can still reach.”
― The Madness Vase
if I blow off steam
as long as I speak in an octave
my kindness can still reach.”
― The Madness Vase
“If you told her the war is over do you think she'd sleep?”
― The Madness Vase
― The Madness Vase
“This life is built almost entirely of love and losing, isn’t it?”
― The Madness Vase
― The Madness Vase
“When 28,000 buildings fall do you know how many walls are no longer there?”
― The Madness Vase
― The Madness Vase
“The nutritionist said I should eat root vegetables.
Said if I could get down thirteen turnips a day
I would be grounded, rooted.
Said my head would not keep flying away
to where the darkness lives.
The psychic told me my heart carries too much weight.
Said for twenty dollars she’d tell me what to do.
I handed her the twenty. She said, “Stop worrying, darling.
You will find a good man soon.”
The first psycho therapist told me to spend
three hours each day sitting in a dark closet
with my eyes closed and ears plugged.
I tried it once but couldn’t stop thinking
about how gay it was to be sitting in the closet.
The yogi told me to stretch everything but the truth.
Said to focus on the out breath. Said everyone finds happiness
when they care more about what they give
than what they get.
The pharmacist said, “Lexapro, Lamicatl, Lithium, Xanax.”
The doctor said an anti-psychotic might help me
forget what the trauma said.
The trauma said, “Don’t write these poems.
Nobody wants to hear you cry
about the grief inside your bones.”
But my bones said, “Tyler Clementi jumped
from the George Washington Bridge
into the Hudson River convinced
he was entirely alone.”
My bones said, “Write the poems.”
― The Madness Vase
Said if I could get down thirteen turnips a day
I would be grounded, rooted.
Said my head would not keep flying away
to where the darkness lives.
The psychic told me my heart carries too much weight.
Said for twenty dollars she’d tell me what to do.
I handed her the twenty. She said, “Stop worrying, darling.
You will find a good man soon.”
The first psycho therapist told me to spend
three hours each day sitting in a dark closet
with my eyes closed and ears plugged.
I tried it once but couldn’t stop thinking
about how gay it was to be sitting in the closet.
The yogi told me to stretch everything but the truth.
Said to focus on the out breath. Said everyone finds happiness
when they care more about what they give
than what they get.
The pharmacist said, “Lexapro, Lamicatl, Lithium, Xanax.”
The doctor said an anti-psychotic might help me
forget what the trauma said.
The trauma said, “Don’t write these poems.
Nobody wants to hear you cry
about the grief inside your bones.”
But my bones said, “Tyler Clementi jumped
from the George Washington Bridge
into the Hudson River convinced
he was entirely alone.”
My bones said, “Write the poems.”
― The Madness Vase
“I listened to the bells on the door
and stole more than enough bottles for myself
to understand that everyone's chest
is a living room wall
with awkwardly placed photographs
hiding fist-shaped holes.”
― The Madness Vase
and stole more than enough bottles for myself
to understand that everyone's chest
is a living room wall
with awkwardly placed photographs
hiding fist-shaped holes.”
― The Madness Vase
“Next time I will know it’s normal to have a hard time breathing when you shake the dust. We make everything so complicated. Sometimes, the message in the bottle is “Don’t drink so much — there’s too much Novocaine in our wisdom teeth already.”
― The Madness Vase
― The Madness Vase
“My grandfather went to Heaven.
I know this because he taught my mother
how to wiggle her ears.
I know this because my mother walks the same way
my grandfather did
and on the days my mother cannot get out of bed
her single comfort
is knowing she has his blood.”
― The Madness Vase
I know this because he taught my mother
how to wiggle her ears.
I know this because my mother walks the same way
my grandfather did
and on the days my mother cannot get out of bed
her single comfort
is knowing she has his blood.”
― The Madness Vase
“Tell me how they will no longer
have to hide beneath burkas.
How you will wrap them in lace
‘til they are all as conveniently rape-able
as women in the States.”
― The Madness Vase
have to hide beneath burkas.
How you will wrap them in lace
‘til they are all as conveniently rape-able
as women in the States.”
― The Madness Vase
“I like imagining your body is Saturn,
my body ten thousand rings wrapped around you.”
― The Madness Vase
my body ten thousand rings wrapped around you.”
― The Madness Vase
