“Sometimes you think you’re giving a person the world but you’re not. Sometimes your world is not their world.”— Sue Zhao, blossomfully.tumblr.com
“On nights when you feel like your mouth Is filled with scar tissue when your fists are heavier than your clay heart, remember the broken that does not need replacement remember the lungs that pound air in a body too tired to kiss the sun tell yourself you are still working on it say healing, say tak…”— Tammy Danan, thoughtcatalog.com
“Hold that white flag close to your heart And pluck the orange from the sun – it is setting Let it set on your palms Let your shaking bones beat like djembe drums Let your surrender fall to the ground So it can hold this tiny blue earth together. There is an ocean inside of you and Its waves come in…”— Tammy Danan, thoughtcatalog.com
“I see smoke each time I look in the mirror Perhaps this is God’s way of keeping me safe He knows I’m tired of seeing dead birds in rusting cages. Last night, I called the wind and asked How she taught the dove to fly ‘the sky is a map if you know how to look’ She said. And I looked at my skin, marke…”— Tammy Danan, thoughtcatalog.com
“most people fear the fire there’s the burning the suffocation the losing who wouldn’t be afraid of the fire? You. when you reach that dark alley and decided to make a left when you skipped morning coffee because you’ve had too much wine when you felt so heavy-hearted but scuffled upon approaching yo…”— Tammy Danan, thoughtcatalog.com
“It's true: pain and suffering helps to create what we call art. given the choice I'd never choose this damned pain and suffering for myself but somehow it finds me as the royalties continue to roll on in.”— Charles Bukowski, amazon.com
“i am open to seeing what limiting beliefs i have so i can reframe them”— Mallory Whitten, amazon.com
“The best craftsmanship always leaves holes and gaps in the works of the poem, so that something that is not in the poem can creep, crawl, flash, or thunder in.”— Dylan Thomas, amazon.com
“Poetry finds first and seeks afterwards. It is the quarry of exegesis which is unquestionably a Muse because it is apt to decipher our codes, to illuminate our inner darkness, and to tell us about what we were unaware of having said.”— Jean Cocteau, amazon.com
“Nostalgia is a dirty liar that insists things were better than they seemed.”— Michelle K., michellekpoems.tumblr.com
“How I regret not opening my mouth, the down-lit cast of my glance where I studied that quality, sun- runner, gold bodied, how could I answer you with all this earth piled on my tongue, your limbs just stripped of anger, how could I say, yes, there is something on my mind rushing up as river in a loc…”— Kenzie Allen, narrativemagazine.com
“My thought at the collarbone: how the skin carries its light. One breathable membrane, an onion nerve filled and luminous. One half a current-ridden circuit, one hollow for these shoulders, curled spine. Wrists undamaged and strong ankles, free of any hurt.”— Kenzie Allen, narrativemagazine.com
“The poem is always incomplete, the butterflies make it whole.”— Mahmoud Darwish, poetryfoundation.org
“It is, as my therapist says, a study into the metaphysics of absent love.”— John Mayer, rollingstone.com
“For there is nothing sweeter than her peace when at rest. For there is little more fierce than the need to be known.”— Ellen Bass, narrativemagazine.com
“What will be first to emerge? The brain, pushing its murderous bulb through the mud? The heart? No— the heart is last to rise. The first to emerge is the image.”— Jenny George, narrativemagazine.com
“THEY SAY it is the soul that rises, not the body. But the body does rise—”— Jenny George, narrativemagazine.com
“I can only say I have waited for you through western nights at bus stops in lanes by canals on airfields and the gallows of tears And then you came through the forlorn cities of Europe I recognized you I set out the table for you with wine with bread with mercy but imperturbably you turned your back…”— Ingrid Jonker, amazon.com