A Year of Last Things Quotes

“There’s always been this deafness in icons. You rely only on gestures from the hierarchy you find yourself within while what appears beyond those painted windows remains silent. You hear no rush of water, or the buckling of clouds. The world outside is icon-less. A metal arm that heals a damaged Madonna is constructed by blacksmiths, not faith.”
― Michael Ondaatje, A Year of Last Things: Poems

“It was your year of last things, but you were luminous, within those final fires.”
― Michael Ondaatje, A Year of Last Things: Poems

“For there is only, but always, a small tunnel of escape for forgiveness.”
― Michael Ondaatje, A Year of Last Things: Poems

“[...]
Even then I wanted
to slip into the wet dark
rectangle and swim on
barefoot to other depths
where nothing could be seen
that was a further story
— "Lock"

[..]
having reached for what is remote,
covert during a tender alliance
like hidden stairs down into a pond
— "Leg Glance"

from dark rural highways
into a city wild with light
I remember you in a rented car
in blackness, a loose map on your knees
both of us tense with sudden geography
[...]
— "Night When I Drove”
― Michael Ondaatje, A Year of Last Things: Poems