“Notice how a poet's games are called his "works" - and how the "work" you do to solve a poem is really play. The impulse and motive for making a poem and for solving and enjoying a poem are quite alike: both include curiosity, alertness, joy in observation and invention.” PlayJoyPoetryCuriosityInvention Book:The Complete Poems to Solve Source: The Complete Poems to Solve
“Beneath heaven’s vault remember always walking through halls of cloud down aisles of sunlight or through high hedges of the green rain walk in the world highheeled with swirl of cape hand at the swordhilt of your pride Keep a tall throat Remain aghast at life Enter each day as upon a stage lighted and waiting for your step Crave upward as flame have keenness in the nostril Give your eyes to agony or rapture Train your hands as birds to be brooding or nimble Move your body as the horses sweeping on slender hooves over crag and prairie with fleeing manes and aloofness of their limbs Take earth for your own large room and the floor of the earth carpeted with sunlight and hung round with silver wind for your dancing place” LoveJoyPoetryNaturePoetRejoice Author:May Swenson
“October I sit with braided fingers and closed eyes in a span of late sunlight. The spokes are closing. It is fall: warm milk of light, though from an aging breast. I do not mean to pray. The posture for thanks or supplication is the same as for weariness or relief. But I am glad for the luck of light. Surely it is godly, that it makes all things begin, and appear, and become actual to each other. Light that’s sucked into the eye, warming the brain with wires of color.” LightPoetryBeautyPoetGratitudeAutumn Author:May Swenson
“Take earth for your own large room and the floor of earth carpeted with sunlight and hung round with silver wind for your dancing place.” EarthRoomsWindDancingRoundsSilverSunlightHung Book:May Swenson: Collected Poems: (Library of America #239) Source: May Swenson: Collected Poems: (Library of America #239)
“Body my house my horse my hound what will I do when you are fallen” BodyHouseHorseFallenHounds Author:May Swenson
“The summer that I was ten - Can it be there was only one summer that I was ten? It must have been a long one then.” LongHas BeensTenSummer Book:May Swenson: Collected Poems: (Library of America #239) Source: May Swenson: Collected Poems: (Library of America #239)
“Bat doesn't hit ball, bat meets it.” BallsBats Book:May Swenson: Collected Poems: (Library of America #239) Source: May Swenson: Collected Poems: (Library of America #239)
“The best poetry has its roots in the subconscious to a great degree. Youth, naivety, reliance on instinct more than learning and method, a sense of freedom and play, even trust in randomness, is necessary to the making of a poem.” PlayYouthDegreesRootsMethodInstinctSubconsciousRelianceRandomnessNaivetyBest Poetry Book:Made with words Source: Made with words