Inside my empty bottle I was constructing a lighthouse while all the others were making ships.

Quote by Charles Simic

Topics: Speech Quotes

Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them.

Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them.

Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket.

Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket.

Inside my empty bottle I was constructing a lighthouse while all the others were making...

Inside my empty bottle I was constructing a lighthouse while all the others were making...

Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them.

Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them.

Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the human heart can hold.

Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the human heart can hold.

He who will have no judge but himself condemns himself

He who will have no judge but himself condemns himself

But for a few phrases from his letters and an odd line or two of...

But for a few phrases from his letters and an odd line or two of...

We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves,...

We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves,...

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.

Language is fossil poetry

Language is fossil poetry

If food is poetry, is not poetry also food?

If food is poetry, is not poetry also food?

The poet ranks far below the painter in the representation of visible things, and far...

The poet ranks far below the painter in the representation of visible things, and far...

My arms have mutinied against me brutes! My fingers fidget like ten idle brats, My...

My arms have mutinied against me brutes! My fingers fidget like ten idle brats, My...

Cruel with guilt, and daring with despair, the midnight murderer bursts the faithless bar; invades...

Cruel with guilt, and daring with despair, the midnight murderer bursts the faithless bar; invades...

In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood...

In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood...

If we can discover the meaning in the trilling of a frog, perhaps we may...

If we can discover the meaning in the trilling of a frog, perhaps we may...

The poet ranks far below the painter in the representation of visible things, and far...

The poet ranks far below the painter in the representation of visible things, and far...

Was it for this the clay grew tall?

Was it for this the clay grew tall?

The degree in which a poet's imagination dominates reality is, in the end, the exact...

The degree in which a poet's imagination dominates reality is, in the end, the exact...

The poet and the politician have this in common: their greatness depends on the courage...

The poet and the politician have this in common: their greatness depends on the courage...