Poetry Quote by Adrienne Rich — Inspiring Words on Life, Love & Wisdom

“but from here on”

“We are not supposed to go down into the darkness of the core. Yet, if we can risk it, the something born of that nothing is the beginning of truth.”

“Silence can be a plan”

“[Poetry] is the liquid voice that can wear through stone.”

“Truthfulness, honor, is not something which springs ablaze of itself; it has to be created between people. This is true in political situations. The quality and depth of the politics evolving from a group depends in large part on their understanding of honor. Much of what is narrowly termed "politics" seems to rest on a longing for certainty even at the cost of honesty, for an analysis which, once given, need not be re-examined…It isn't that to have an honorable relationship with you, I have to understand everything, or tell you everything at once, or that I can know, beforehand, everything I need to tell you. It means that most of the time I am eager, longing for the possibility of telling you. That these possibilities may seem frightening, but not destructive to me. That I feel strong enough to hear your tentative and groping words. That we both know we are trying, all the time, to extend the possibilities of truth between us.”

“In this quiet place on a quiet street”

“I have learned and dismantled all the words in order to draw from them a”

“Consider the difference between the first and third person in poetry [...] It's like the difference between looking at a person and looking through their eyes.”

“The purpose of poetry is to remind us / how difficult it is to remain just one person...”

“you were not wrong for leaving”

“The Vagabond”