American - Poet | December 15, 1913 - February 12, 1980
The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.
Muriel Rukeyser
ScienceUniverseAtomsMadeStories
Our poems will have failed if our readers are not brought by them beyond the poems.
WillBeyondPoemsOurThemReaders
Nourish beginnings, let us nourish beginnings. Not all things are blest, but the seeds of all things are blest. The blessing is in the seed.
BlessingSeedsSeedBeginningsUs
However confused the scene of our life appears, however torn we may be who now do face that scene, it can be faced, and we can go on to be whole.
LifeFaceConfusedGoNowMay
If there were no poetry on any day in the world, poetry would be invented that day. For there would be an intolerable hunger.
DayPoetryWorldHungerWouldWere
I think there is choice possible to us at any moment, as long as we live. But there is no sacrifice. There is a choice, and the rest falls away. Second choice does not exist. Beware of those who talk about sacrifice.
LiveMomentSacrificeRestThink
In our period, they say there is free speech. They say there is no penalty for poets, There is no penalty for writing poems. They say this. This is the penalty.
WritingFreeSpeechSayThey Say
Those who speak of our culture as dead or dying have a quarrel with life, and I think they cannot understand its terms, but must endlessly repeat the projection of their own desires.
LifeCultureSpeakThinkUnderstand
It is the single image, as used in a photograph or a painting - or the frame of a film - to which words have been added to enlarge the context. The method is not the same as that by which most paintings are named. It is closer in its performance to what dialogue does to a movie, to what the caption does to a good poster.
GoodWordsPaintingPerformanceSame
Breathe-in experience, breathe-out poetry.
ExperiencePoetry
I hear the singing of the lives of women. They clear mystery, the offering, and pride.
WomenSingingPrideMysteryClear
Exchange is creation.
CreationExchange
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