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Galway Kinnell (1 February 1927 / Providence, Rhode Island)
Quotations
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''this one whom habit of memory propels to the ground of his making,
Galway Kinnell (b. 1927), U.S. poet. After Making Love We Hear Footsteps (l. 21-23). . . Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, The. Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair, eds. (2d ed., 1988) W. W. Norton & Company.
sleeper only the mortal sounds can sing awake,
this blessing love gives again into our arms.''
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''after making love, quiet, touching along the length of our bodies,
Galway Kinnell (b. 1927), U.S. poet. After Making Love We Hear Footsteps (l. 10-11). . . Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, The. Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair, eds. (2d ed., 1988) W. W. Norton & Company.
familiar touch of the long-married,''
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''A boy's hunched body loved out of a stalk
Galway Kinnell (b. 1927), U.S. poet. First Song (l. 16-18). . . Norton Anthology of Poetry, The. Alexander W. Allison and others, eds. (3d ed., 1983) W. W. Norton & Company.
The first song of his happiness, and the song woke
His heart to the darkness and into the sadness of joy.''
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''There is something joyous in the elegies
Galway Kinnell (b. 1927), U.S. poet. Flower Herding on Mount Monadnock (l. 25-28). . . New Oxford Book of American Verse, The. Richard Ellmann, ed. (1976) Oxford University Press.
Of birds. They seem
Caught up in a formal delight,
Though the mourning dove whistles of despair.''
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''The appeal to heaven breaks off.
Galway Kinnell (b. 1927), U.S. poet. Flower Herding on Mount Monadnock (l. 75-78). . . New Oxford Book of American Verse, The. Richard Ellmann, ed. (1976) Oxford University Press.
The petals begin to fall, in self-forgiveness.
It is a flower. On this mountainside it is dying.''
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''the sheer blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
Galway Kinnell (b. 1927), U.S. poet. Saint Francis and the Sow (l. 21-23). . . Norton Introduction to Poetry, The. J. Paul Hunter, ed. (3d ed., 1986) W. W. Norton & Company.
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking and blowing beneath them:
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.''
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''The bud
Galway Kinnell (b. 1927), U.S. poet. Saint Francis and the Sow (l. 1-3). . . Norton Introduction to Poetry, The. J. Paul Hunter, ed. (3d ed., 1986) W. W. Norton & Company.
stands for all things,
even for those things that don't flower,''
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''I take a wolf's rib and whittle
Galway Kinnell (b. 1927), U.S. poet. The Bear (l. 9-13). . . Room for Me and a Mountain Lion; Poetry of Open Space. Nancy Larrick, comp. (1974) M. Evans and Company.
it sharp at both ends
and coil it up
and freeze it in blubber and place it out
on the fairway of the bears.''
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''the rest of my days I spend
Galway Kinnell (b. 1927), U.S. poet. The Bear (l. 90-94). . . Room for Me and a Mountain Lion; Poetry of Open Space. Nancy Larrick, comp. (1974) M. Evans and Company.
wandering: wondering
what, anyway,
was that sticky infusion, that rank flavor of blood, that
poetry, by which I lived?''
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''you in San Quentin,
Galway Kinnell (b. 1927), U.S. poet. The Correspondence School Instructor Says Goodbye to His Poetry Students (l. 9-13). . . New Oxford Book of American Verse, The. Richard Ellmann, ed. (1976) Oxford University Press.
who wrote, "Being German my hero is Hitler,"
instead of "Sincerely yours," at the end of long,
neat-scripted letters demolishing
the pre-Raphaelites:''
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