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Quotes tagged “Poetry”

“Sometimes you think you’re giving a person the world but you’re not. Sometimes your world is not their world.”
— Sue Zhao, It's Called Incompatibility
Tagged: poem, Poetry, Prose, Tumblr Writing, Tumblr
“On nights when you feel like your mouth
Is filled with scar tissue
when your fists are heavier than your clay heart,
remember the broken that does not
need replacement
remember the lungs that pound air in a body
too tired to kiss the sun
tell yourself you are still working on it
say healing, say taking my time
say patience, dear heart
say revolution and revelation and rising
say love,
love
love.”
— Tammy Danan, "I Will Tell"
Tagged: Poems, Poetry, My Favorites, Fear, Self-Love, Loving Yourself, Poetic Language, Finding Your Way, Self-Discovery, Finding Yourself, Finding Who You Are, Making It Through, poem, dance, Keep Going, Steps, Taking Small Steps, Small Steps, Becoming, Love, Becoming Love
“Hold that white flag close to your heart
And pluck the orange from the sun – it is setting
Let it set on your palms
Let your shaking bones beat like djembe drums
Let your surrender fall to the ground
So it can hold this tiny blue earth together.
There is an ocean inside of you and
Its waves come in unnamed colors
Waiting for your fingers to submerge itself
In it one by one by one
As your breathing follows the drum beats
As your hand paints over the white nothingness
This is creating
This is tiny human in tiny earth
With so much inside of her
This is freedom
This is keep going. With tiny feet, keep going.”
— Tammy Danan, "Dance Me To The Tune Of Small Survivals"
Tagged: Poems, Poetry, My Favorites, Fear, Self-Love, Loving Yourself, Poetic Language, Finding Your Way, Self-Discovery, Finding Yourself, Finding Who You Are, Making It Through, poem, dance, Keep Going, Steps, Taking Small Steps, Small Steps
“I see smoke each time I look in the mirror
Perhaps this is God’s way of keeping me safe
He knows I’m tired of seeing dead birds in rusting cages.
Last night, I called the wind and asked
How she taught the dove to fly
‘the sky is a map if you know how to look’
She said.
And I looked at my skin,
marked the places I cannot love.
There are mountains in spots I want rivers to flow
Scriptures buried on the ground where trees grow
I guess my skin is a map,
There are stars hanging and the moon is painting constellations
Someday, I’ll find my way through.”
— Tammy Danan, "Orion"
Tagged: Poems, Poetry, My Favorites, Fear, Self-Love, Loving Yourself, Poetic Language, Finding Your Way, Self-Discovery, Finding Yourself, Finding Who You Are, Making It Through, poem
“most people fear the fire
there’s the burning
the suffocation
the losing
who wouldn’t be afraid of the fire?
You.
when you reach that dark alley and
decided to make a left
when you skipped morning coffee because
you’ve had too much wine
when you felt so heavy-hearted but scuffled
upon approaching your favorite bookstore
so you just go home
cry over all the wrong decisions you made
stare out the window, see even
the smoke has already cleared
and now there’s nothing left
in your city
in your body
this, is when you’ll realize
it’s not the fire
that you fear.”
— Tammy Danan, "My Body Is A City And It's Not Burning And I Am Afraid"
Tagged: Poems, Poetry, My Favorites, Finding Yourself, Fear, Fearing Yourself, City, Body Is A City, Poetic Language, Fear The Future
“It's true:
pain and suffering 
helps to create
what we call
art.

given the choice
I'd never choose 
this damned
pain
and suffering
for myself
but somehow it finds
me

as the royalties 
continue to
roll on
in.”
— Charles Bukowski, What can I do?
Tagged: Poetry, Poets, Writers, How to be a writer, Suffering, Art
“i am open to seeing what limiting beliefs i have so i can reframe them”
— Mallory Whitten, God Box
Tagged: The way forward, Poetry
“The best craftsmanship always leaves holes and gaps in the works of the poem, so that something that is not in the poem can creep, crawl, flash, or thunder in.”
— Dylan Thomas, Modern Poets on Modern Poetry
Tagged: Poetry, Create Mystery
“Poetry finds first and seeks afterwards. It is the quarry of exegesis which is unquestionably a Muse because it is apt to decipher our codes, to illuminate our inner darkness, and to tell us about what we were unaware of having said.”
— Jean Cocteau, Language and Style: Collected Papers of Stephen Ullmann
Tagged: Poetry, Creative Writing, Exegesis
“Nostalgia is a
dirty liar
that insists things
were better
than they seemed.”
— Michelle K.
Tagged: Nostalgia, Poetry, Memories, False Memories, Lie, Lies, Quote of the Moment
“How I regret not opening

my mouth, the down-lit cast of my glance
where I studied that quality, sun-
runner, gold bodied, how could I
answer you with all this earth

piled on my tongue, your limbs
just stripped of anger, how could I say,
yes, there is something on my mind
rushing up as river in a locked car;

voice ruined, how could I explain the meteor
in my chest cavity, could I cluster verbs
into sardine cans and twist the lid
back on and tamp it shut with the

gold hammer of my must-not-say-
that, which huddled, parched,
as we said goodnight, see you
in the morning, don’t stay up too late.”
— Kenzie Allen, Whatever Is the Matter
Tagged: Collarbone, Body, Poetry, skin, Light, description, Love, Regret, Mouth, Lyrical Language, Love Poetry
“My thought at the collarbone:
how the skin carries its light. One
breathable membrane, an onion
nerve filled and luminous. One half

a current-ridden circuit, one hollow
for these shoulders, curled spine. Wrists
undamaged and strong ankles, free
of any hurt.”
— Kenzie Allen, Whatever Is the Matter
Tagged: Collarbone, Body, Poetry, skin, Light, description
“The poem is always incomplete, the butterflies make it whole.”
— Mahmoud Darwish, To a Young Poet
Tagged: Poetry, The Impossibility of Communication, A Poem Is Never Finished
“These books are much better than firewood.”
— Ryan Adams, Infinity Blues
Tagged: Books, Poetry, Quote of the Moment
“It is, as my therapist says, a study into the metaphysics of absent love.”
— John Mayer, See John Mayer, Ryan Adams Perform 'Come Pick Me Up' in Los Angeles
Tagged: Music, Poetry, emotions, Love, John Mayer, John Mayer ryan adams, John Mayer ryan adams come pick me up los angeles
“For there is nothing sweeter than her peace when at rest.

For there is little more fierce than the need to be known.”
— Ellen Bass, Jubilate Homo | Narrative Magazine
Tagged: Fierce, Being Strong, Her, Describing Her, Poetry, poem
“As for me, I am a watercolor.
I wash off.”
— Anne Sexton, For My Lover, Returning To His Wife by Anne Sexton | The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor
Tagged: Poetry, Quote of the Moment
“What will be first to emerge?
The brain, pushing its murderous bulb
through the mud? The heart? No—
the heart is last to rise.
The first to emerge is the image.”
— Jenny George, "Easter," in Narrative Magazine
Tagged: easter, Body, Soul, Rising, Body Rising, Becoming, Poetry, poem, The Soul, Body & Soul
“THEY SAY it is the soul that rises, not the body.
But the body does rise—”
— Jenny George, "Easter," in Narrative Magazine
Tagged: easter, Body, Soul, Rising, Body Rising, Becoming, Poetry, poem, The Soul, Body & Soul
“I can only say I have waited for you
through western nights
at bus stops
in lanes
by canals
on airfields
and the gallows of tears
And then you came
through the forlorn cities of Europe
I recognized you
I set out the table for you
with wine with bread with mercy
but imperturbably you turned your back
you detached your sex laid it down on the table
and without speaking a word
with your own smile
abandoned the world”
— Ingrid Jonker, Ingrid Jonker Versamelde Werke(Afrikaans Edition)
Tagged: Poetry, poem, Love, Sex & Intimacy, Sadness, contemporary poetry

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About The Authors

This page was created by our editorial team. Each page is manually curated, researched, collected, and issued by our staff writers. Quotes contained on this page have been double checked for their citations, their accuracy and the impact it will have on our readers.

Kelly Peacock is an accomplished poet and social media expert based in Brooklyn, New York. Kelly has a Bachelor's degree in creative writing from Farieligh Dickinson University and has contributed to many literary and cultural publications. Kelly assists on a wide variety of quote inputting and social media functions for Quote Catalog. Visit her personal website here.

Kendra Syrdal is a writer, editor, partner, and senior publisher for The Thought & Expression Company. Over the last few years she has been personally responsible for writing, editing, and producing over 30+ million pageviews on Thought Catalog.