“To grow old is to lose everything. Aging, everybody knows it. Even when we are young, we glimpse it sometimes, and nod our heads when a grandfather dies. Then we row for years on the midsummer pond, ignorant and content.” KnowsYearsSometimesYoungDiesGrowsLosesAgingIgnorantGrandfatherGlimpsePondsMidsummer Book:The Selected Poems of Donald Hall Source: The Selected Poems of Donald Hall
“For a hundred and fifty years, in the pasture of dead horses, roots of pine trees pushed through the pale curves of your ribs, yellow blossoms flourished above you in autumn, and in winter frost heaved your bones in the ground--old toilers, soil makers: O Roger, Mackerel, Riley, Ned, Nellie, Chester, Lady Ghost.” YearsPastNamesTreeHundredRootsHorseWinterBonesGhostSoilFiftyAutumnMakersYellowPaleCurvesRogerFrostRibsPasturesPine TreesMackerel Book:Old and New Poems: Donald Hall Source: Old and New Poems: Donald Hall
“Horace, when he wrote the Ars Poetica, recommended that poets keep their poems home for ten years; don't let them go, don't publish them until you have kept them around for ten years: by that time, they ought to stop moving on you; by that time, you ought to have them right.” YearsHomeMovingPoetOughtTenPublish Book:Poetry and Ambition: Essays 1982-1988 Source: Poetry and Ambition: Essays 1982-1988
“We made in those days tiny identical rooms inside our bodies which the men who uncover our graves will find in a thousand years shining and whole.” MenYearsMadeWholeBodyRoomsThousandShiningTinyGravesThousand YearsIdentical Book:Old and New Poems Source: Old and New Poems
“Each year the big garden grew smaller and Jane - who grew flowers by choice, not corn or stringbeans - worked at the vegetables more than I did. Each winter I dreamed crops, dreamed marvels of canning . . . and each summer I largely failed. Shamefaced, I planted no garden at all.” YearsBigsChoicesFlowerFailureGrewSummerGardenWinterVegetablesJaneCornCropsCanning Book:Life Work Source: Life Work
