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1 " AESTHETICS OF INTEGRITYFor every star in the skySomeone is holding his ground. "
― Kenneth Koch , The Collected Poems
2 " I thought, 'There are a lot of poets who have the courage to look into the abyss, but there are very few who have the courage to look happiness in the face and write about it,' which is what I wanted to be able to do. "
― Kenneth Koch
3 " Where did you come from, lamentable quality?Before I had a life you were about to ruin my life.The mystery of this stays with me.“Don’t brood about things,” my elders said.I hadn’t any other experience of enemies from inside.They were all from outside—big boysWho cursed me and hit me; motorists; falling trees.All these you were as bad as, yet inside. When I spoke, you were there.I could avoid you by singing or acting.I acted in school plays but was no good at singing.Immediately after the play you were there again.You ruined the cast party.You were not a sign of confidence.You were not a sign of manliness.You were stronger than good luck and bad; you survived them both.You were slowly edged out of my throat by psychoanalysisYou who had been brought in, it seems, like a hired thugTo beat up both sides and distract themFrom the main issue: oedipal love. You were horrible!Tell them, now that you’re back in your thug country,That you don’t have to be so rough next time you’re called inBut can be milder and have the same effect—unhappiness and pain. "
4 " The uniform of the gladdest malt is its sureness. "
5 " AESTHETICS OF COMEDY ASLEEPDon’t wake the clownOr he may knock you down. "
6 " You have enchanted me with a single kissWhich can never be undoneUntil the destruction of language "
7 " I wasn’t readyFor you.I understood nothingSeemingly except my feelingsYou were whirling In your lifeI was keepingEverything in my head"To Marina "
8 " I'm a writer who likes to be influenced. "
9 " Do not be defeated by theFeeling that there is too much for you to know. Thatis a myth of the oppressor. You areCapable of understanding life. And it is yours alone.And only this time. "
― Kenneth Koch , The Art of Love: Poems
10 " I love you as a sheriff searches for a walnut / That will solve a murder case unsolved for years / Because the murderer left it in the snow beside a window / Through which he saw her head, connecting with / Her shoulders by a neck, and laid a red /Roof in her heart. For this we lived a thousand years; / For this we love, and we live because we love, we are not /Inside a bottle, thank goodness! ----- from "To You "
11 " Maybe poetry took the life out of both of them,Idea and friendship. "
12 " Lies belong in poems "
― Kenneth Koch , Wishes, Lies, and Dreams: Teaching Children to Write Poetry
13 " I probably misunderstand misunderstanding itself "
14 " I was excited by what my painter friends were doing, and they seemed to be interested in our poetry too, and that was a wonderful little, fizzy sort of world. "
15 " AESTHETICS OF THE AESTHETICIANWhat is the aestheticianBut a mule hitched to the times? "
16 " I don't know where you'd find such a magazine." ~ on the stipulations set by a benefactor to the Harvard Advocate that the staff contain no Jews, homosexuals, or drunks "
17 " When you finish a poem, it clicks shut like the top of a jewel box, but prose is endless. I haven't experienced an awful lot of clicking shut! "
18 " Summer in the trees! “It is time to strangle several bad poets.” /The yellow hobbyhorse rocks to and fro, and from the chimney / Drops the Strangler! The white and pink roses are slightly agitated by the struggle, / But afterwards beside the dead “poet” they cuddle up comfortingly against their vase. They are safer now, no one will compare them to the sea. / Here on the railroad train, one more time, is the Strangler. / He is going to get that one there, who is on his way to a poetry reading. / Agh! Biff! A body falls to the moving floor. "
19 " Poetry, which is written while no one is looking, is meant to be looked at for all time. "
20 " Write poetry as if you were in love. If you are always in love you will not always write the same poem, but if you are never in love, you may. - from "My Olivetti Speaks "
