Poetess Quotes

I'm young as morning and fresh as dew. Everybody loves me and so do you.

Everyone grows old but not everyone grows up.

Determine to live life with flair and laughter.

I saw, in gradual vision through my tears, The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years, Those of my own life, who by turns had flung A shadow across me.

Let me tell so much truth. I want to tell the truth in my work. The truth will lead me to all.

It is impossible to struggle for civil rights, equal rights for blacks, without including whites. Because equal rights, fair play, justice, are all like the air: we all have it, or none of us has it. That is the truth of it.

I was born in St. Louis but lived there just for a few minutes in my life.

It is the worst thing you can do, women, is whine, .. I mean the worst. Don't complain, protest.

That's what you want to do? Then nothing beats a trial but a failure. Give it everything you've got. I've told you many times, 'Cant do is like Dont Care.' Neither of them have a home.

Enough! we're tired, my heart and I. We sit beside the headstone thus, And wish that name were carved for us. The moss reprints more tenderly The hard types of the mason's knife, As Heaven's sweet life renews earth's life With which we're tired, my heart and I .... In this abundant earth no doubt Is little room for things worn out: Disdain them, break them, throw them by! And if before the days grew rough We once were loved, used, - well enough, I think, we've fared, my heart and I.

I have heard it said that winter, too, will pass, that spring is a sign that summer is due at last. See, all we have to do is hang on.

I wrote some of the worst poetry west from the Mississippi River, but I wrote. And I finally sometimes got it right.

Some of us are timid. We think we have something to lose so we don't try for that next hill.

Be present in all things and thankful for all things.

On this platform of peace, we can create a language to translate ourselves to ourselves and to each other.

You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.

You will face many defeats in your life, but never let yourself be defeated.

You may not get what you paid for, but you will pay for what you get.

You are the sum total of everything you've ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot - it's all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.

Being a woman is hard work.

Intelligence is a separate gift, for the benefit of students, so that they may think of themselves as intellectual and not very intelligent, or intelligent and not very intellectual. One hopes, of course, that they try to bring the two virtues, the two elements, into their lives at the same time.

I answer the heroic question, 'Death, where is thy sting?' with 'It is in my heart and mind and memories.

To make a difference is not a matter of accident...People CHOOSE to make a difference.

The music soars within the little lark, And the lark soars.

What is genius but the power of expressing a new individuality?

It is a no-fail, incontrovertible reality: If you get, give. If you learn, teach. You can't do anything with that except do it.

O rose, who dares to name thee?No longer roseate now, nor soft, nor sweet,But pale, and hard, and dry, as stubblewheat,Kept seven years in a drawer, thy titles shame thee.

I made the decision to quit show business. Give up the skintight dresses and manicured smiles. The false concern over sentimental lyrics. I would never again work to make people smile inanely and would take on the responsibility of making them think.

I always knew from that moment, from the time I found myself at home in that little segregated library in the South, all the way up until I walked up the steps of the New York City library, I always felt, in any town, if I can get to a library, I'll be okay. It really helped me as a child, and that never left me. So I have a special place for every library, in my heart of hearts.

If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.

Continue. Be loving and be strong. Be fierce and be kind. And don't give in and don't give up.'

When members of a society wish to secure that society's rich heritage they cherish their arts and respect their artists. The esteem with which we regard the multiple cultures offered in our country enhances our possibilities for healthy survival and continued social development.

Never whine. Whining lets a brute know that a victim is in the neighborhood.

I want to be representative of my race-the human race. I have a chance to show how kind we can be, how intelligent and generous we can be.

There are great parents of small children - they keep their little hair in bows - but those parents are not always good parents of young adults. As soon as their children get up to some size, it's "Shut up, sit down, you talk too much, keep your distance, I'll send you to Europe!" My mom was a terrible parent of small children but a great parent of young adults. She'd talk to me as if I had some sense.

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.

When the storyteller tells the truth, she reminds us that human beings are more alike than unalike... A story is what it's like to be a human being-to be knocked down and to miraculously arise. Each one of us has arisen, awakened. We do rise.

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. Try to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud. Do not complain. Make every effort to change things you do not like. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking. You might find a new solution.

If you must look back, do so forgivingly. If you will look forward, do so prayerfully. But the wisest course would be to be present in the present gratefully.

Courage - you develop courage by doing small things like just as if you wouldn't want to pick up a 100-pound weight without preparing yourself.

Education helps one case cease being intimidated by strange situations.

The charitable say in effect, 'I seem to have more than I need and you seem to have less than you need. I would like to share my excess with you.' Fine, if my excess is tangible, money or goods, and fine if not, for I learned that to be charitable with gestures and words can bring enormous joy and repair injured feelings.

Every experience shapes your writing, being stuck in a car on a lonely bridge, or dancing at a prom, being the it girl on the beach, all of those things influence your life, they influence how you write, and the topics you choose to write about.

She comprehended the perversity of life, that in the struggle lies the joy.

Without courage you cannot practice any of the other virtues.

But I love you, sir:And when a woman says she loves a man,The man must hear her, though he love her not.

Lift up your eyes uponThis day breaking for you.Give birth againTo the dream.Women, children, men,Take it into the palms of your hands.Mold it into the shape of your mostPrivate need. Sculpt it intoThe image of your most public self.Lift up your heartsEach new hour holds new chancesFor a new beginning.

Joy is a freedom. It helps a person to find his/her own liberation. The person who is joyous takes responsibility for the time he/she takes up and the space that he/she occupies. You share it! Some of you have it ... you share it! That is what joy is! When you continue to give it away you will still have so much more of it.

What is art but the life upon the larger scale, the higher. When, graduating up in a spiral line of still expanding and ascending gyres, it pushes toward the intense significance of all things, hungry for the infinite?

Sing, seraph with the glory! heaven is high.Sing, poet with the sorrow! earth is low.The universe's inward voices cry"Amen" to either song of joy and woe.Sing, seraph, poet! sing on equally!

I had read a Tale of Two Cities and found it up to my standards as a romantic novel. She opened the first page and I heard poetry for the first time in my life...her voice slid in and curved down trough and over the words. She was nearly singing.

Stormy or sunny days, glorious or lonely nights, I maintain an attitude of gratitude.

Whenever I'm around some who is modest, I think, 'Run like hell and all of fire.' You don't want modesty, you want humility.

The English have a scornful insular way Of calling the French light.

Grace is like a lake of drinkable water right outside your door. But you stay inside and die of thirst.

The truth brings the past into the present and prepares us for the future. That's what truth does

I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.

Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.

I try to live what I consider a "poetic existence." That means I take responsibility for the air I breathe and the space I take up. I try to be immediate, to be totally present for all my work.

If we are honest and fair, then we are known by that. If we are not, alas, we are known by that as well. What we want to do is do right, but you have to say it, you have to show it, and not stop.