For two decades, I’ve maintained a list of quotes I like by poets, writers, and thinkers I find interesting. This post is part of that series. All posts in the series are organized alphabetically. Some poets and writers have their own dedicated pages.

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A monkey had his hands cut off / for a medical experiment / and his claws wept. / I know that much.

All day I’ve built / a lifetime and now / the sun sinks to / undo it.

All the cocks of the world are God, / blooming, blooming, blooming / into the sweet blood of woman.

Am I in your ear still singing songs in the rain, / me of the death rattle, me of the magnolias, / me of the sawdust tavern at the city’s edge.

and the birds in their chains / going mad with throat noises

Body of moss, body of glass, / body of peat, how sharp / you lie, emerald as heavy / as a golf course

dark mother, / brood mother, let the sea birds / bring you into our lives / as from a distant island, / heavy as death.

I’d won the world / but like a / forsaken explorer, / I’d lost / my map.

It was as if a morning-glory / had bloomed in her throat / and all that blue / and small pollen / ate into my heart / violent and religious.

more God, more God everywhere / lighter, lighter, / more world everywhere, / sheets bent back for people, / the strange heads of love

Our bodies were trash. / We leave them on the shore.

Out of the mournful sweetness of touching / comes love / like breakfast.

The daisies grow wild / like popcorn. / They are God’s promise to the field.