Poems Quotes

“Who needs a suitcase?
The notebooks are burnt.”
― Irina Ratushinskaya, Poems

“Silent, Cassandra will pour the tea,
Sit at the table,
Make up the bed, find the tatters to darn,
Toss them on cushions.
Silent, she'll rise in the fathomless dawn,
Bless you with cross-signs.”
― Irina Ratushinskaya, Poems

“I will write.
And then I'll make a fire.
O, how these lines will soar up,
The pages fall back to ash
Under the savage slap
Of a long-lapsed emptiness!
With what an arrogant gesture
I will be outstripped by the flame!
And the foam of ashes will quiver
But nothing will be born from them.”
― Irina Ratushinskaya, Poems

“You, the damnable place of my birth, my eternal Decembers.”
― Irina Ratushinskaya, Poems

“We've had such a December—
Mixing bullets and wings.
Do we have to know
Why the river turns black?”
― Irina Ratushinskaya, Poems

“Sleep, how soon I too shall be sent—
For your sake—
my dearest,
my damnable.”
― Irina Ratushinskaya, Poems

“But your eyes were bequeathed to me—
As anathema
And a blessing.”
― Irina Ratushinskaya, Poems

“How we love to foretell the future
Which will follow our mute withdrawal!

Maybe nights will increase in number,
And the breezes escape attention?
Maybe summer will turn quite chilly,
And our poets will be forgotten?
And our tears will remain inactual,
And our faces will blur, dissolving.
Past recalling, our lips will vanish,
Unhabituated to kisses!”
― Irina Ratushinskaya, Poems

“It was at 25, not 15, that I began to write. Yes, there were attempts before, writing attempts, but they were the mere scribbling of a child who through no fault of her own knew only half an alphabet. Now, in my 27th year, it is appetite I have, and abundance to garner. I can make up for lost time—and time is what I have to seek some truths and pull together some lost pieces. It's okay. I'll do it. I'll make up those years.”
― Irina Ratushinskaya, Poems

“And meanwhile growing up. All according to plan,
Wasn't it, Lord? Under the freezing sky
All lands, the real and unreal, were ecstasy”
― Irina Ratushinskaya, Poems

“Knives poised close to the throat—then the voices are slowly imbibed.
Glutted majesty heaves himself back from the vampiric supper,
While the Judas trees thrive in the hush of their forested bed.”
― Irina Ratushinskaya, Poems

“You said, "Suffer through privation,
But don't lose your honor."
See—my memory is certain.
You're pleased I've learned that saying?
Must I shoulder now a burden
Of despair this springtime?
Send your blessing down, my darlings.”
― Irina Ratushinskaya, Poems