May Sarton Quotes - Page 4

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For any writer who wants to keep a journal, be alive to everything, not just to what you're feeling, but also to your pets, to flowers, to what you're reading.

May Sarton

Flower, Reading, Feelings

May Sarton, Earl G. Ingersoll (1991). “Conversations with May Sarton”, p.190, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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Poems like to have a destination for their flight. They are homing pigeons.

May Sarton

Pigeons, Flight, Destination

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It is a waste of time to see people who have only a social surface to show. I will make every effort to find out the real person, but if I can't, then I am upset and cross. Time wasted is poison.

May Sarton

Real, People, Effort

May Sarton (2014). “Journal of a Solitude”, p.15, Open Road Media

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It is clear that we do not exactly choose our poems; our poems choose us.

May Sarton

Poet, Clear

May Sarton (2015). “Writings on Writing”, p.14, Open Road Media

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I write poems about relationships, love relationships, and I'm not able to do that all the time. I could go two years without writing poems, and then write a dozen. Having a novel to work on, with the intricate puzzle of character and plot to work out, is satisfying for the time there is no poetry.

May Sarton

Writing, Character, Years

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It takes a long time for words to become thought.

May Sarton

Long, Long Time

May Sarton (2014). “Collected Poems: 1930–1973”, p.57, Open Road Media

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Love cannot exorcise the gifts of hate. / Hate cannot exorcize what has no weight, / But laughter we can never over-rate.

May Sarton

Laughter, Hate, Weight

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Poetry finds its perilous equilibrium somewhere between music and speech.

May Sarton

Speech, Equilibrium

May Sarton (2015). “Writings on Writing”, p.13, Open Road Media

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The more our bodies fail us, the more naked and more demanding is the spirit, the more open and loving we can become if we are not afraid of what we are and of what we feel. I am not a phoenix yet, but here among the ashes, it may be that the pain is chiefly that of new wings trying to push through.

May Sarton

Pain, Wings, Phoenix

May Sarton (2014). “Recovering: A Journal”, p.119, Open Road Media

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poetry is first of all a way of life and only secondarily a way of writing.

May Sarton

Writing, Way, Firsts

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A house that does not have one warm, comfy chair in it is soulless.

May Sarton

Home, House, Doe

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People who are always thinking of the feelings of others can be very destructive because they are hiding so much from themselves.

May Sarton

Thinking, People, Feelings

May Sarton (2014). “Crucial Conversations: A Novel”, p.44, Open Road Media

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Where music thundered let the mind be still, Where the will triumphed let there be no will, What light revealed, now let the dark fulfill.

May Sarton

Dark, Light, Mind

May Sarton (2014). “The Lion and the Rose: Poems”, p.65, Open Road Media

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It is harder for women, perhaps to be 'one-pointed,' much harder for them to clear space around whatever it is they want to do beyond household chores and family life. Their lives are fragmented... the cry not so much for a 'a room of one's own' as time of one's own. Conflict become acute, whatever it may be about, when there is no margin left on any day in which to try at least to resolve it.

May Sarton

Space, Trying, May

May Sarton (1993). “A House of Gathering: Poets on May Sarton's Poetry”, p.137, Univ. of Tennessee Press

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Public education was not founded to give society what it wants. Quite the opposite.

May Sarton

Opposites, Giving, Want

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The minute one utters a certainty, the opposite comes to mind.

May Sarton

Opposites, Mind, Minutes

May Sarton (2014). “Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing: A Novel”, p.48, Open Road Media

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For of course one is never safe when in love. Growth is demanding and may seem dangerous, for there is loss as well as gain in growth. But why go on living if one has ceased to grow? And what more demanding atmosphere for growth than love in any form, than any relationship which can call out and requires of us our most secret and deepest selves?

May Sarton

Loss, Self, Atmosphere

May Sarton (2014). “Journal of a Solitude”, p.53, Open Road Media

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when I am working I immediately feel hopeful.

May Sarton

Hopeful, Feels

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I love giving flowers. It is so deliciously unlasting and romantic.

May Sarton

Flower, Giving, Romance

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True power is given to the vulnerable.

May Sarton

True Power, Vulnerable, Given

May Sarton (2014). “Recovering: A Journal”, p.129, Open Road Media

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For me a true poem is on the way when I begin to be haunted, when it seems as if I were being asked an inescapable question by an angel with whom I must wrestle to get at the answer.

May Sarton

Angel, Answers, Way

May Sarton (2015). “Writings on Writing”, p.39, Open Road Media

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So let the world go, but hold fast to joy.

May Sarton

Joy, World, Hold Fast

May Sarton (2014). “Selected Poems of May Sarton”, p.144, Open Road Media

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Why is it that people who cannot show feeling presume that that is a strength and not a weakness?

May Sarton

Strength, Happiness, People

May Sarton (2014). “At Seventy: A Journal”, p.21, Open Road Media

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Nobody stays special when they're old, Anna. That's what we have to learn.

May Sarton

Special, Anna

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We are all jellyfish, too pitiful and too afraid of being disliked to be honest.

May Sarton

Honesty, Being Honest, Jellyfish

May Sarton (2014). “The House by the Sea: A Journal”, p.136, Open Road Media

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Born: May 3, 1912
Died: July 16, 1995
Occupation: Poet
Cite this Page: Citation

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