After the Point of No Return Quotes

“After the Point of No Return

After that moment when you've lost all reason
for going back where you started, when going ahead
is no longer a Yes or No, but a matter of fact,
you'll need to weigh, on the one hand, what will seem,
on the other, almost nothing against something
slightly more than nothing and must choose
again and again, at points of fewer and fewer
chances to guess, when and which way to turn.

That's when you might stop thinking about stars
and storm clouds, the direction of wind,
the difference between rain and snow, the time
of day or the lay of the land, about which trees
mean water, which birds know what you need
to know before it's too late, or what's right here
under your feet, no longer able to tell you
where it was you thought you had to go.”
― David Wagoner, After the Point of No Return

“We’d have to dance beforehand anywhere else
but here, where rain is already happening,
how simple it all seems to persuade the gods
to bring their heaven down, to shower us
with that most comfortable answer to a prayer;
results before the fact.”
― David Wagoner, After the Point of No Return

“They show us more often
Than not how to die
At the same time and in more ways
Of doing both, of taking the first
Out of the heart of the other
And spreading it around…”
― David Wagoner, After the Point of No Return

“…You should stay alive
As often as possible and keep yourself open
to anything out of place and everything
with nowhere else to go, to carry what’s left
of your voice out and beyond, into, over,
and under, past, within, outside, between,
among, across, along, and up and around
and to be beside yourself when the spirit moves you…”
― David Wagoner, After the Point of No Return

“A Brief History"

“A poet writes the history of his body” Thoreau

Where it went, what it came back to,
where and why it laid itself down
and tried to sleep, what happened to it
without advice or consent,
what it failed at, how it disobeyed
its own commands to no purpose,
what it held in its hands when it was told
and told to let go, what it neglected
to open its arms for, how it wouldn’t
stand still, not even when it might as well
have had no legs at all
to be running away with, or the times
when it would sit and wait
without knowing what it was waiting for
in places where it didn’t belong,
how it broke down, how
but not why it made marks again
and again on pieces of paper.”
― David Wagoner, After the Point of No Return