Home / Quotes / Quote by Gerald Stern

Quote by Gerald Stern

“Lucky life isn't one long string of horrors and there are moments of peace, and pleasure, as I lie in between the blows.”

Quote by Gerald Stern

Author

Gerald Stern is an American poet born on February 22, 1925. His poetry is known for its unique style and profound insights into life. more

You May Also Like

“Of all the cankers of human happiness, none corrodes it with so silent, yet so baneful, a tooth, as indolence.”

Happiness Work Laziness

Author:Thomas Jefferson

“Who knows the minute in the moment of last breath?”

Death Loss Mourning Breath

Author:Lailah Gifty Akita

“...although being "angry at God"--or at myself, or him, or anyone else--made no sense to me, I was often overwhelmed by sudden, intense bursts of anger that had no outlet, no appropriate target.”

Death Loss Grief Anger Mourning

Book:Why Religion? A Personal Story

Source: Why Religion? A Personal Story

“Who says that all must vanish? Who knows, perhaps the flight of the bird you wound remains, and perhaps flowers survive caresses in us, in their ground. It isn't the gesture that lasts, but it dresses you again in gold armor--from breast to knees-- and the battle was so pure an Angel wears it after you.”

Death Poetry Memories Loss Grief Poem Memory Mourning

Author:Rainer Maria Rilke

“Meanwhile there was work to do: raising our children, wading through a mass of legal papers, finances, and taxes, and recovering the professional life that was now our sole support, while, at a subterranean level, feeling adrift in dark, unknown waters. And though I'd flared with anger when the priest at Heinz's funeral had warned not to be "angry at God" because of his sudden and violent death, I struggled not to sink under currents of fear, anger, and confusion that roiled an ocean of grief.”

Life Death Fear Loss Grief Anger Confusion Mourning

Book:Why Religion? A Personal Story

Source: Why Religion? A Personal Story

“He never talked about his mother--and I had learned never to ask--but I sometimes sensed her absence in his reactions to certain events, as if he knew even then that there existed under everything a universal grief.”

Death Loss Grief Mourning

Book:The Age of Miracles

Source: The Age of Miracles

“How to resist nothingness? What power Preserves what once was, if memory does not last? For I remember little. I remember so very little.”

Death Poetry Loss Grief Poem Memory Mourning Remembering

Author:Czesław Miłosz

“...The day was meant for what ineffable creature we must have missed?”

Death Poetry Loss Grief Poem Mourning

Author:Elizabeth Bishop

“Now while I sat in the day and look'd forth, In the close of the day with its light and the fields of spring, and the farmers preparing their crops, In the large unconscious scenery of my land with its lakes and forests, In the heavenly aerial beauty, (after the perturb'd winds and the storms,) Under the arching heavens of the afternoon swift passing, and the voices of children and women, The many-moving sea-tides, and I saw the ships how they sail'd, And the summer approaching with richness, and the fields all busy with labor, And the infinite separate houses, how they all went on, each with its meals and minutia of daily usages, And the streets how their throbbings throbb'd, and the cities pent—lo, then and there, Falling upon them all and among them all, enveloping me with the rest, Appear'd the cloud, appear'd the long black trail, And I knew death, its thought, and the sacred knowledge of death.”

Life Death Poetry Loss Grief Poem Mourning Everyday Life

Author:Walt Whitman

“Often beneath the wave, wide from this ledge The dice of drowned men’s bones he saw bequeath An embassy. Their numbers as he watched, Beat on the dusty shore and were obscured. And wrecks passed without sound of bells, The calyx of death’s bounty giving back A scattered chapter, livid hieroglyph, The portent wound in corridors of shells. Then in the circuit calm of one vast coil, Its lashings charmed and malice reconciled, Frosted eyes there were that lifted altars; And silent answers crept across the stars. Compass, quadrant and sextant contrive No farther tides ... High in the azure steeps Monody shall not wake the mariner. This fabulous shadow only the sea keeps.”

Death Poetry Loss Grief Sea Poem Mourning Herman Melville

Author:Hart Crane