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Poem Quotes

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Poem Quotes

“Had any children? the doctor asks. I say No. And close my lips—the other half of the answer. If this were a party, I'd feel I had to go on, even if the other person hadn't asked Why not? Or Are you planning on having any? They feel free to ask. And almost always, I explain something about wanting them but not enough, or how I wish I had two lives: in one of them I'd have a child by now. But it's no good, not doing something never sounds as real as doing it. I seem to stand in for reserve, my life a keeping back, a state of being not in active service.”

ChildrenPoetryPoemHolding BackChildlessnessReserveMultiple Lives
Book:No Moon
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“What kind of a person could kill a Black child and then kill another Black child and then kill another Black child and then kill another Black child and then kill another Black child and then kill another Black child and stay above suspicion? What about the police? What about somebody Black? What sixteen year old would say no to a cop? What seven year old would say no thanks to me? What is an overreaction to murder? What kind of a person could kill a Black child and then kill a Black child and then kill a Black child? What kind of a person are you? What kind of a person am I? What makes you so sure? What kind of a person could save a Black child? What kind of a people will lay down its life for the lives of our children? What kind of a people are we?”

ChildrenDeathPoetryPoemMurderAfrican AmericansBlacks
Author:June Jordan
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“So about an hour later we are in the taxi shooting along empty country roads towards town. The April light is clear as an alarm. As we pass them it gives a sudden sense of every object existing in space on its own shadow. I wish I could carry this clarity with me into the hospital where distinctions tend to flatten and coalesce. I wish I had been nicer to him before he got crazy. These are my two wishes.”

ChildrenPoetryPoemIllnessClarityParentsDementiaAlzheimers
Book:Glass, Irony and God
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“imagine your heart is just a ball you learned to dribble up and down the length of your driveway back home. slow down control it. plant your feet in the soft blue of your mat and release it is hard but slowly you are unlearning the shallow pant of your childhood. extend your body—do not reach for someone but something fixed and fleshless and certain— fold flatten then lift your head like a cobra sure of the sun waiting and ready to caress the chill from its scales. inhale—try not to remember how desperate you’ve been for touch—yes ignore it—that hitch of your heart you got from mornings you woke to find momma hysterical or gone. try to give up the certainty she’d never return recall only the return and not its coldness. imagine her arms wide to receive you imagine you are not a thing that needs escaping. it is hard and though at times you are sure you will always be the abandoned girl trying to abandon herself push up arch deep into your back exhale and remember— when it is too late to pray the end of the flood we pray instead to survive it.”

ChildrenPoetryPoemSurvivalYogaTraumaParents
Author:Brionne Janae
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“Truth is not the secret of a few' yet you would maybe think so the way some librarians and cultural ambassadors and especially museum directors act you'd think they had a corner on it the way they walk around shaking their high heads and looking as if they never went to the bath room or anything But I wouldn't blame them if I were you They say the Spiritual is best conceived in abstract terms and then too walking around in museums always makes me want to 'sit down' I always feel so constipated in those high altitudes”

TruthPoetryPoemMuseumsLibrariesPretensionsSnobbiness
Book:A Coney Island of the Mind
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“To those in need of healing, Who can never quite be healed: May curses be your blessing, And may weakness be your shield. To feel despite the numbness, And to hear the silent sound. To see there still is meaning When no answers can be found. I hope you’ll keep on searching, While you also search no more. For know that sometimes healing Is far different and far purer and far greater than a cure.”

InspirationalPoetryPrayerAnswersHealingPoemSicknessChronic Illness
Author:Michael Bihovsky
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“You once told me You wanted to find Yourself in the world - And I told you to First apply within, To discover the world within you. You once told me You wanted to save The world from all its wars - And I told you to First save yourself From the world, And all the wars You put yourself Through. APPLY WITHIN by Suzy Kassem”

TruthPoetryUniversePeaceAnswersKnowledgePoemQuestionsSuzy KassemWars
Book:Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
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“Answers I kept my answers small and kept them near; Big questions bruised my mind but still I let Small answers be a bullwark to my fear. The huge abstractions I kept from the light; Small things I handled and caressed and loved. I let the stars assume the whole of night. But the big answers clamoured to be moved Into my life. Their great audacity Shouted to be acknowledged and believed. Even when all small answers build up to Protection of my spirit, still I hear Big answers striving for their overthrow. And all the great conclusions coming near”

AnswersPoem
Author:Edith Sitwell
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“On the beach at night alone, As the old mother sways her to and fro singing her husky song, As I watch the bright stars shining, I think a thought of the clef of the universes and of the future. A vast similitude interlocks all, All distances of place however wide, All distances of time, All souls, all living bodies though they be ever so different, All nations, All identities that have existed or may exist All lives and deaths, all of the past, present, future, This vast similitude spans them, and always has spann'd, And shall forever span them and compactly hold and enclose them.”

UniverseExistenceIdentityPoemFutureBeachLives
Book:Leaves of Grass
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“THE DANCE OF ANGELS Suzy Kassem He spins and spins and spins To remove all three layers of him And with devout discipline He spirals to ignite the light within. He becomes a part Of the solar system And spirals to its cosmic hymn. His soul transcends through The mouth of God To join the source Of everything. He turns and turns and turns To open up windows to the universe And with each circle of love he twirls The love in his heart Radiates and bursts. His thirst for a meeting with the divine Has been his only quest since birth, And while rotating like the hand of time He sings the 'AH' of an angel's verse. As he turns and turns and turns A million emotions and vibrations submerge A luminous spectacle worth a million candles, The Sufi dancer is poetry without Words. THE DANCE OF ANGELS by Suzy Kassem”

UniversePoemAngelsSufiSuzy KassemSufi PoetryDervishSufi PoemSufi Dancer
Book:Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
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“Three things have a limited threshold: Time, pain, and death. While truth, love, and knowledge – Are boundless.”

LoveLifePhilosophyWisdomTruthPainDeathPoetryTimeSpiritualityUniverseThreeKnowledgePoemInfinitePhilosopherPhysicsHeavenlyMetaphysicsUnconditionalPhilosopher QuotesBoundlessThresholdSuzy KassemSuzy Kassem QuotesSuzy Kassem PoemsPoems Suzy KassemThrees
Book:Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
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“Scene: Darkness. Suddenly, a single spotlight illuminates Apollo standing on the front porch of the Big House. The house is a bold red colour, a stark contrast to the short white chiton Apollo wears. He clears his throat and speaks. Apollo: A poem by Apollo, recited dramatically by ... Apollo: O Immortal Chiron, Centaur wise and true, Trainer of our heroes, Just remember who taught you. - The opening scene of Welcome to Camp Half-Blood Apollo's chiton was so short, I held my breath throughout this scene, praying he didn't bend over. - P. J.”

HumorPoemPercy Jackson
Book:Camp Half-Blood Confidential
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