Galway Kinnell

this one whom habit

this one whom habit of memory propels to the ground of his making, sleeper only the mortal sounds can sing awake, this blessing love gives again into our arms. Galway Kinnell

Goodbye, you who are, for

Goodbye, you who are, for me, the postmarks again of shattered towns–Xenia, Burnt Cabins, Hornell– their loneliness given away in poems, only their solitude kept. Galway Kinnell

There are two versions

There are two versions to every poem – the crying version and the straight version Galway Kinnell

Is there a mechanism

Is there a mechanism of death, that so mutilates existence no one, gets over it not even the dead? Galway Kinnell

Little sleep’s-head sprouting hair

Little sleep’s-head sprouting hair in the moonlight, when I come back we will go out together, we will walk out together among, the ten thousand things, each scratched too late with such knowledge, the wages of dying is love. Galway Kinnell

I start off but

I start off but I don’t know where I’m going; I try this avenue and that avenue, that turns out to be a dead end, this is a dead end, and so on. The search takes a long time and I have to back-track often. Galway Kinnell

The first step… shall

The first step… shall be to lose the way. Galway Kinnell

I love to go

I love to go out in late September among the fat, overripe, icy, black blackberries to eat blackberries for breakfast, the stalks very prickly, a penalty they earn for knowing the black art of blackberry-making; and as I stand among them lifting the stalks to my mouth, the ripest berries fall almost unbidden to my … Read more

The only sense we

The only sense we still respect is eyesight, probably because it is so closely attached to the brain. Go into any American house at random, you will find something – a plastic flower, false tiles, some imitation something – something which can be appreciated as material only if apprehended by eyesight alone. Don’t we go … Read more

Perhaps poetry will be

Perhaps poetry will be the canary in the mine-shaft warning us of what’s to come. Galway Kinnell