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Quote by Stephen Dunn

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Riffs and Reciprocities: Prose Pairs

This book brings together a series of paired prose pieces that delve into the intricate relationship between language and storytelling, showcasing the author's skill in crafting intricate narratives and the use of language as a tool for exploration and expression. more

Author

Stephen Dunn
Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn is an American poet born on June 24, 1939. His poetry is known for its deep social consciousness and emotional expression, and has won numerous literary awards. more

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“This is what history is: all those centuries of bodies, moving over these canals, twisting and blooming into life in these houses, these streets; all that flesh hungering, coming together, separating, continuing, accumulating, relinquishing, aging and breaking down. Bodies as tulips bent to the demands of light, colored into blossom, spent.”

“Being in grief, it turns out, is not unlike being in love. In both states, the imagination's entirely occupied with one person. The beloved dwells at the heart of the world, and becomes a Rome: the roads of feeling all lead to him, all proceed from him. Everything that touches us seems to relate back to that center: there is no other emotional life, no place outside the universe of feeling centered on its pivotal figure.”

“Grief does not seem to me to be a choice. Whether or not you think grief has value, you will lose what matters to you. The world will break your heart. So I think we’d better look at what grief might offer us. It’s like what Rilke says about self-doubt: it is not going to go away, and therefore you need to think about how it might become your ally.”