Home / Authors / Kevin Young Books

Kevin Young Books

Author

Browse famous quotes by Kevin Young.

Book of Hours: Poems

A source page for quotes linked to Kevin Young.

0 quotes

Brown: Poems

A source page for quotes linked to Kevin Young.

0 quotes

The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and H...

A source page for quotes linked to Kevin Young.

0 quotes

The Fire This Time: A New Generation Sp...

A source page for quotes linked to Kevin Young.

0 quotes

For the Confederate Dead

A source page for quotes linked to Kevin Young.

0 quotes

Jelly Roll

A source page for quotes linked to Kevin Young.

0 quotes

Heart Simile

Book:For the Confederate Dead

Source: For the Confederate Dead

“He said being dead was a little like living, only longer.”

Death Poetry Dying Poem Living

Book:Book of Hours: Poems

Source: Book of Hours: Poems

“I am no longer ashamed how for weeks, after, I wanted to be dead--not to die, mind you, or do myself in--but to be there already, walking amongst all those I'd lost, to join the throng singing, if that's what there is-- or the nothing, the gnawing-- So be it.”

Death Poetry Loss Grief Dying Sorrow Poem Mourning Afterlife

Book:Book of Hours: Poems

Source: Book of Hours: Poems

“Sixth grade you didn't survive just endured.”

Children Kids School Childhood Survival Endurance Sixth Grade

Book:Brown: Poems

Source: Brown: Poems

“Every pore mourns. Not the brain, nor the chest where bereavement nests, but the body, whole-- how it burns. The ache of new bone being grown.”

Death Poetry Loss Grief Sadness Poem Mourning Bereavement Aching

Book:Book of Hours: Poems

Source: Book of Hours: Poems

“a calm that would undo most anyone who thought noise worse than its opposite”

Poetry Silence Poem Calm Noise

Book:Brown: Poems

Source: Brown: Poems

“Deep Song Belief is what buries us—that & the belief in belief— No longer do I trust liltlessness —leeward is the world's way—Go on plunge in —the lungs will let us float. Joy is the mile- high ledge the leap—a breath above the lip of the abandoned quarry—belief the dark the deep.”

Joy Belief Risk

Book:Jelly Roll

Source: Jelly Roll

“How I wish I could leave or forget all my dead.”

Death Loss Grief Mourning Dead Remembrance Forgetting

Book:Book of Hours: Poems

Source: Book of Hours: Poems

“A quiet snowglobe of pain I want to shake. While the flakes fall like ash we race the train to reach the place Emmett Till last whistled or smiled or did nothing.”

Pain Poetry Poem Mississippi Emmett Till Money Mississippi

Author:Kevin Young

“It never ends, the bruise of being”

Grief Birth Sorrow

Book:Book of Hours: Poems

Source: Book of Hours: Poems

“Death brings with it a duty and devotion that cannot be explained to those who don't know it.”

Death Loss Grief Duty Devotion Mourning Survivors

Book:The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing

Source: The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing

“Grief The borrowed handkerchief where she wept returned to me months later, starched, pressed.”

Death Poetry Loss Grief Mourning Poems Crying Weeping

Book:Book of Hours: Poems

Source: Book of Hours: Poems

“Grief In the night I brush my teeth with a razor”

Poetry Loss Grief Sorrow Poem Mourning

Book:Book of Hours: Poems

Source: Book of Hours: Poems

“So many socks. After the pair the undertaker asks for (I picture them black beneath the fold in your open casket, your toes still cold) what else to do,. Body bags of old suits, shirts still pressed, long johns, the unworn, unwashed wreckage of your closet, too many coats to keep, though I will save so many. How can I give away the last of your scent? And still, father, you have errands, errant dry cleaning to pick up-- yellow tags whose ghostly carbon tells a story where to look. One place closed for good, the tag old. One place with none of your clothes, just stares as if no one ever dies, as if you are naked somewhere, & I suppose you are. Nothing here. The last place knows exactly what I mean, brings me shirts hanging like a head. Starched collars your beard had worn. One man saying sorry, older lady in the back saying how funny you were, how you joked with her weekly. Sorry— & a fellow black man hands your clothes back for free, don’t worry. I’ve learned death has few kindnesses left. Such is charity—so rare & so rarely free— that on the way back to your emptying house I weep. Then drive everything, swaying, straight to Goodwill— open late—to live on another body & day.”

Death Poetry Loss Grief Poem Mourning Cleaning

Book:Book of Hours: Poems

Source: Book of Hours: Poems

“May God or whoever else spare you the arms of bereavement specialists-- grant mercy from the Team dedicated to your transition in this difficult time yet who won't tell you a thing & know far less.”

Death Poetry Loss Grief Poem Mourning Bereavement Phone Calls

Book:Book of Hours: Poems

Source: Book of Hours: Poems

“The day will come when you'll be dead longer than alive--thankfully not soon.”

Death Poetry Loss Grief Poem Remembrance

Book:Book of Hours: Poems

Source: Book of Hours: Poems

“Do not believe angels are easy. Instead, terrible, terrific in the oldest sense-- the ground giving way beneath your feet.”

Poetry Loss Danger Poem Shock Angels

Book:Book of Hours: Poems

Source: Book of Hours: Poems

“We are not born with tears. Your first dozen cries are dry. It takes some time for the world to arrive and salt the eyes.”

Poetry Time Grief Tears Poem Aging Crying Weeping

Book:Book of Hours: Poems

Source: Book of Hours: Poems

“Like hot food I love you like warm bread & cold cuts, butter sammiches or, days later, after Thanksgiving when I want whatever's left”

Love Need Steady Steadfast Ragtime Steadfast Love

Author:Kevin Young

“Aunts cook like there's no tomorrow & they're right.”

Poetry Poem Aunts No Tomorrow Aunties

Author:Kevin Young

“There are things that cannot be seen but must be.”

Poetry Poem Emmett Till

Author:Kevin Young

“The apocalypse sounds like this-- black men breaking in to steal back the thing once stole from them.”

Poetry Poem African Americans Blacks

Book:Brown: Poems

Source: Brown: Poems

“There are gods of fertility, corn, childbirth, & police brutality--this last is offered praise & sacrifice near weekly & still cannot be sated”

Death Poetry Poem Police African Americans Blacks Police Brutality Michael Brown

Book:Brown: Poems

Source: Brown: Poems

“A finger is a gun-- a wallet is a gun, skin a shiny pistol, a demon, a barrel already ready-- hands up don't shoot--”

Poetry Poem African Americans Blacks Police Brutality Guns Michael Brown

Book:Brown: Poems

Source: Brown: Poems

“A shack made of ribs. A house made of out. A car made of rust. A smile made of doubt.”

Poetry Doubt Poem Words

Book:Brown: Poems

Source: Brown: Poems

“We were never young.”

Age Poetry Youth Poem

Book:Brown: Poems

Source: Brown: Poems

“Like grass in rain, my dead grow at an amazing rate.”

Death Poetry Poem Dead

Book:Book of Hours: Poems

Source: Book of Hours: Poems

“It's hard being human.”

Poetry Humanity Challenges Poem Difficulties

Book:Book of Hours: Poems

Source: Book of Hours: Poems

“This world is rigged with ruin.”

World Life Poetry Poem Ruin

Book:Book of Hours: Poems

Source: Book of Hours: Poems

“It's death there is no cure for-- life the long disease. If we're lucky. Otherwise, short trip beyond. And below.”

Life Death Poetry Poem

Book:Book of Hours: Poems

Source: Book of Hours: Poems

“To lose someone close to you is to enter an experience no amount of forethought or hindsight can free you from. You must live through grief. You cannot outsmart it, nor think through the fact of someone's being gone, and forever. You must survive the sorrow.”

Thinking Death Loss Grief Sorrow Survival Mourning

Book:The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing

Source: The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing

“I think it is in grief that we need some reminder of our humanity--and sometimes, someone to say it for us. Poetry steps in at those moments when ordinary words fail: poetry as ceremony, as closure to what cannot be closed.”

Death Poetry Loss Grief Mourning Poems Ceremony Closure

Book:The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing

Source: The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing

“Grief might be easy if there wasn't still such beauty--would be far simpler if the silver maple didn't thrust its leaves into flame, trusting that spring will find it again.”

Death Poetry Loss Grief Beauty Poem Seasons Mourning

Book:The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing

Source: The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing

“Often, in death, everything else fails. We are left only with the music and the meaning of poetry.”

Death Poetry Loss Grief Mourning Poems

Book:The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing

Source: The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing

“Like Rachel Dolezal, I too became black around the age of five. I first became a n----r at nine, so I had me a good run.”

Race Racism African Americans Blacks Slurs Epithets Rachel Dolezal

Book:The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race

Source: The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race

“Did Dolezal really fool those black folks around her? I have a strange feeling she didn't, that many simply humored her. You have to do this with white people, from time to time.”

Race African Americans Blacks Race Relations Whites Rachel Dolezal Humoring

Book:The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race

Source: The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race

“Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die to get there.”

Death Poetry Heaven Poem

Book:Brown: Poems

Source: Brown: Poems

“I was ten when Mike Smiley, half-Indian, skinny, brown-skinned, brought the word jigaboo to school like lunch, or the flu, fed him by his adopted white father who said that's what we called them then. By noon it was done--everyone had a name for what had been bothering them, some thing utterly human as hate.”

Children Kids Poetry Hate Poem Racism African Americans Blacks Insults Epithets

Book:Brown: Poems

Source: Brown: Poems

About the Author

Known for: Author
Quotes: 38

Books & Sources

Book of Hours: PoemsRelated source material

Brown: PoemsRelated source material

The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and HealingRelated source material

The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About RaceRelated source material

For the Confederate DeadRelated source material

Jelly RollRelated source material

Kevin Young Books

Book of Hours: Poems

Brown: Poems

The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and H...

The Fire This Time: A New Generation Sp...

For the Confederate Dead

Jelly Roll

Related Quotes