Ten Poems to Say Goodbye Quotes

“Layton once said that “a poet is deeply conflicted and it is in his work that he reconciles those deep conflicts. It doesn’t set the world in order, it doesn’t really change anything. It is just a kind of harbor, it’s the place of reconciliation, the kiss of peace.”
― Roger Housden, Ten Poems to Say Goodbye

“An honest goodbye is one that does not seek excuses or reasons, or explanations of any kind. Ultimately, it is not because of this or that that we part from a lover. Far from being an orderly linear progression, causes and effects form a complex web of interacting forces that together manifest in this or that result, which in its turn becomes part of the web and contributes to whatever comes next. The web itself is as broad and deep as the ocean. Behind every event, no matter how small, is a universe of causative factors stretching back through time as well as space. So let us rather bow to the fact and the mystery of what is before us, whatever it may be, and embrace its reality, regardless of its origins, without trying to control it by explaining it away.”
― Roger Housden, Ten Poems to Say Goodbye

“The greatest gift and expression of love is the gesture of open arms - let come what comes - not because you don't care, or because you hope to steel yourself against pain, but because you care so much that you are helpless to do anything else.”
― Roger Housden, Ten Poems to Say Goodbye

“To say goodbye with all our heart is to turn a parting into a blessing.”
― Roger Housden, Ten Poems to Say Goodbye

“But the fullness of life escapes us either way, whether we are holding on or pushing away, I realize now, at this late hour. For at the heart of love is openness. An unfettered openness of heart and spirit, it seems to me, is what intimacy—with another and with all life—really means. That openness is what I now believe true detachment to be.”
― Roger Housden, Ten Poems to Say Goodbye

“What would people look like if we could see them as they are, soaked in honey, stung and swollen, reckless, pinned against time?”
― Roger Housden, Ten Poems to Say Goodbye

“Goodbye is derived from the phrase “God be with you.” A blessing is the offering of one heart to another; to another person, to a situation, to life itself. Isn’t that what we are here for? To bless the savor of this precious moment even as it slips through our fingers? To allow its sorrow, its joy, its silence or laughter to enter our life stream and add a measure to who we are? This is the spirit of these ten poems, and the hope of this book.”
― Roger Housden, Ten Poems to Say Goodbye

“have also learned that a goodbye is an opportunity for kindness, for forgiveness, for intimacy, and ultimately for love and a deepening acceptance of life as it is instead of what it was or what we may have wanted it to be.”
― Roger Housden, Ten Poems to Say Goodbye

“Can we stand to gaze into the heart of our loss, the preciousness of what we are losing, and not look away?”
― Roger Housden, Ten Poems to Say Goodbye

“great poetry reaches down into the depths of our humanity and captures the very essence of our experience.”
― Roger Housden, Ten Poems to Say Goodbye

“We have to say goodbye to everything eventually, and life is punctuated with a thousand goodbyes, some greater, some smaller, all along the way.”
― Roger Housden, Ten Poems to Say Goodbye

“Absence is a house so transparent that I, lifeless, will see you, living, and if you suffer, my love, I will die again.”
― Roger Housden, Ten Poems to Say Goodbye

“You who were bewildered by a meaning, whose code was broken, crucifix uncrossed—Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving. Then say goodbye to Alexandra lost.”
― Roger Housden, Ten Poems to Say Goodbye