Alberto Ríos Quotes

“The bad do not win—not finally, No matter how loud they are. We simply would not be here If that were so. You are made, fundamentally, from the good. With this knowledge, you never march alone.”

Poetry Evil Community Poem Good Bad

Book:Not Go Away Is My Name

Source: Not Go Away Is My Name

“When dusk falls on us, as it will, To dim the light of lives outlived, When night is next, when sleep is sure, When nothing’s left to lift— I will be glad. The work of a day Well done, this rest its good reward, The best we’ve earned and what We’ve won, this doorway opening. Our lives are like this: years moved on Beyond the words that started them.”

Life Poetry Work Poem Living Twilight Rest Working Dusk Resting

Book:Not Go Away Is My Name

Source: Not Go Away Is My Name

“You have terror and I have tears. In this cruel way, we are for each other. We are at war. You always win. But I do not go away. You shoot me again. Again, I do not go away. You shoot with bullets, but you have nothing else.”

War Poetry Winning Fear Tears Poem Terror Crying Migrants Terrorizing

Book:Not Go Away Is My Name

Source: Not Go Away Is My Name

“In the place between scorpions and manners, Between scream and please pass the salt, Somewhere between John Kennedy’s November And my next-door neighbor’s blue flowerbeds, We live our lives.”

Life Poetry Fear Danger Poem Living Manners Politeness Normalcy Scorpions

Book:Not Go Away Is My Name

Source: Not Go Away Is My Name

“We could not swim, but now we are swimming— We have to swim. It is not fair. It is never fair. We have no chance to be part of the decision That changes us. We were, and then we are. Regrettably, We are not alone. If it is one of us, It is all of us, so many of us.”

Poetry Change Fate Poem Surviving Unfairness Carrying On

Book:Not Go Away Is My Name

Source: Not Go Away Is My Name

“These are immigrant times And the lines are long, The signs for jobs few, The songs sadder, the air meaner. Everyone is hungry. Everyone is willing. Jobs are not jobs but lives lived Hard at the work of being human. These are immigrant times, And the lines are long again.”

Humans Jobs Poetry Humanity Poem Hunger Immigrants Willingness Being Human Migrants

Book:Not Go Away Is My Name

Source: Not Go Away Is My Name

“Sometimes, Nothing warns us. It cannot be thought by us. It is done to us. A gun, An earthquake, a flood—any of the muscular Horrors of this world. In those instances, we don't ask for it, We don't get to take a deep breath, It is simply the end of the chapter And page 1 of the next.”

Poetry Change Violence Poem Accidents Natural Disasters Horrors

Book:Not Go Away Is My Name

Source: Not Go Away Is My Name

“I grew up liking the border and its great scar, Its drama always good for a story the way scars always are. A scar is the place where the hurting used to be. A scar the heroic signature of the healed. The border is not a scar. Instead, it is something we keep picking at, Something that has no name.”

Stories Pain America Poetry Healing Poem Wounds Mexico Scars Border

Book:Not Go Away Is My Name

Source: Not Go Away Is My Name

“What we bring, finally, into the new day, every day, Is ourselves. And that’s all we need To start. That’s everything we require to keep going. Look back only for as long as you must, Then go forward into the history you will make.”

Self Poetry Poem Starting Continuing Carrying On Making History Selves

Book:Not Go Away Is My Name

Source: Not Go Away Is My Name

“We look up Pulled into the immensity, Lifted into the limitless— As if it were a hole We are falling into, Up instead of down. We stand on the earth, Breathe in the night. It is all too big. We go back inside.”

Poetry Night Stars Sky Poem Infinity Immensity Overwhelmingness

Author:Alberto Ríos

“The library is dangerous— Don’t go in. If you do You know what will happen. It’s like a pet store or a bakery— Every single time you’ll come out of there Holding something in your arms. Those novels with their big eyes. And those no-nonsense, all muscle Greyhounds and Dobermans, All non-fiction and business, Cuddly when they’re young, But then the first page is turned. The doughnut scent of it all, knowledge, The aroma of coffee being made In all those books, something for everyone, The deli offerings of civilization itself. The library is the book of books, Its concrete and wood and glass covers Keeping within them the very big, Very long story of everything. The library is dangerous, full Of answers. If you go inside, You may not come out The same person who went in.”

Poetry Reading Knowledge Learning Growing Danger Books Library Poems Libraries

Book:Not Go Away Is My Name

Source: Not Go Away Is My Name

“At funerals, things are different. Everything is there—shrimp and red sauce both, Lemons, too, all these things being very thoughtful, even the big, blue cloth napkins. Fancy tongue sandwiches and family-recipe cilantro salsas and olives and pecans, And everybody there is personally concerned that you should have it all, Even though you are just a visitor. Eat up, son, they say. They say it repeatedly. It is curious how you seem to be everybody’s son on these occasions. They don’t want you to just eat a little, either--Look at that ham. Have some more, they say. There’s plenty. And they mean it. That’s what’s left to do at a funeral—make sure people get their fill. There’s nothing else left, once all the food is there and the people have arrived. That’s the business of it all. Anything else comes later. Missing a person, That takes a while. It’s not something you have to worry about now. Nobody else is hungry, so I come prepared. It never fails. People can be counted on At times like these. I tell you, it always turns out to be my lucky day.”

Death Grief Food Eating Hunger Funerals Wakes

Book:Not Go Away Is My Name

Source: Not Go Away Is My Name

“I grew up on the border and though I left I have brought it with me wherever I've gone.”

America Poetry Culture United States Poem Usa Mexico United States Of America Us Border

Book:Not Go Away Is My Name

Source: Not Go Away Is My Name

“You win. You have always won. All I can do is not go away. Not go away is my name.”

Poetry Winning Poem Staying Migrants Persisting

Book:Not Go Away Is My Name

Source: Not Go Away Is My Name

“Like it or not, we are all subscribers to the world’s newspaper Written big in the frame of the window in front of us.”

World Poetry Nature Events Poem News Newspapers Involvement

Book:Not Go Away Is My Name

Source: Not Go Away Is My Name

“Giver of gifts for those who will see them: You and I, cactus, we are clear on the quiet exchanges The desert makes with its creature citizens. In passing by, and every time, I never fail to wave. As every time I see you, you are invariably--invariably-- Waving your arms in delight in seeing me.”

Poetry Nature Poem Delight Desert Gifts Plants Friendliness Cactus Cacti

Book:Not Go Away Is My Name

Source: Not Go Away Is My Name

“Through it all, the mourning doves say There, there--which is to say, everything is all right. I believe them. They have said this to me ever since childhood. I hear them. I hear them and I get up.”

Poetry Belief Poem Calm Birds Being Ok Being All Right Mourning Doves Everything Will Be Ok

Book:Not Go Away Is My Name

Source: Not Go Away Is My Name

“We plant seeds in the ground And dreams in the sky, Hoping that, someday, the roots of one Will meet the upstretched limbs of the other. It has not happened yet.”

Poetry Plans Dreams Poem Seeds Desires Hopes

Book:Not Go Away Is My Name

Source: Not Go Away Is My Name

“Together, we are a tribe of eyes that look upward, Even as we stand on uncertain ground. The earth beneath us moves, quiet and wild, Its boundaries shifting, its muscles wavering. The dream of sky is indifferent to all this, Impervious to borders, fences, reservations. The sky is our common home, the place we all live. There we are in the world together.”

Home Earth Poetry Nature Dreams Sky Poem Living Unity Hoping

Book:Not Go Away Is My Name

Source: Not Go Away Is My Name

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