Home > Author > Howard Nemerov
1 " Write what you know. That should leave you with a lot of free time. "
― Howard Nemerov
2 " I would talk in iambic pentameter if it were easier. "
3 " [T]eaching has been for me an education (Lord knows what it has been for my students). "
4 " Nothing in the universe can travel at the speed of light, they say, forgetful of the shadow`s speed. "
5 " I like all my children, even the squat and ugly ones. "
6 " I have a plot, but not much happens. "
7 " The secrets of success are a good wife and a steady job. My wife told me. "
8 " R.J. Reynolds owns a subsidiary called RJR Packaging, which produces packaging used on many food products for both human and pet consumption.[276] They also produce packaging for many medical devices and over-the-counter medications, as well as personal care, coffee, and confectionary products.[277] In order to remain in business, a company must be profitable. In order to remain profitable in the face of extensive, long-term compulsory levies by state governments via the tobacco settlement, the costs of products must go up so that income remains higher than expenses. Thus, Altria can raise prices on their Kraft food products you buy in order to pay off their tobacco settlement. R.J. Reynolds can pass along the cost by raising packaging costs for manufacturers of many different types of consumer products, who pass the increased production costs along to you. "
― Howard Nemerov , Four Hundred Years of Gun Control: Why Isn't It Working?
9 " Our easy bones groaned, our flesh bakedon one side and shuddered on the other; and each manthought bitterly about primitive simplicityand decadence, and how he had been ruinedby civilization and forced by circumstancesto drink and smoke and sit up all nightinspecting those perfectly arbitrary cardsuntil he was broken-winded as a trout on a rockand had no use for the doctrines of Jean JacquesRousseau, and could no longer afforda savagery whether noble or not; "
10 " A peels an apple, while B kneels to God,C telephones to D, who has a handOn E’s knee, F coughs, G turns up the sodFor H’s grave, I do not understandBut J is bringing one clay pigeon downWhile K brings down a nightstick on L’s head,And M takes mustard, N drives to town,O goes to bed with P, and Q drops dead, R lies to S, but happens to be heardBy T, who tells U not to fire VFor having to give W the wordThat X is now deceiving Y with Z, Who happens, just now to remember A Peeling an apple somewhere far away. "
11 " Absolute power corrupts absolutely; and if you surrender your personal responsibility to a government which promises to take care of you, they will only take care of themselves. "
12 " I have become a gateTo the ruined city, dry, / Indestructible by fire. "
13 " Poetry is a means of seeing invisible things and saying unspeakable things about them. "
14 " The tobacco settlement money went to lawyers and to governments, which effectively turned the money into a tax and then spent it on state bureaucracy. Regular folk did not receive any tax refund checks, nor did we see lower health insurance premiums, but we did pay more for everyday products not related to smoking. This means we are, in effect, paying billions of dollars in additional tax besides the billions in legal fees because of the tobacco settlement, as well as funding the next legal campaign to collect another large pay-day in contingency fees. It is very interesting to note during the tobacco suit that, while claiming various individuals were being victimized, or medical costs were mounting from misleading advertising or dishonest business practices, it was lawyers and governments, not the people nor their insurance companies, that collected all the loot. This the type of litigation did nothing to improve your life and it raised your cost of living. "
15 " Because You Asked about the Line between Prose and Poetry” Sparrows were feeding in a freezing drizzleThat while you watched turned to pieces of snow Riding a gradient invisibleFrom silver aslant to random, white, and slow.There came a moment that you couldn’t tell.And then they clearly flew instead of fell. "
― Howard Nemerov , Sentences
