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61 " The good poem allows us to believe we have a soul. In the presence of a good poem we remember/discover the soul has an appetite, and that appetite is for emotional veracity and for the unsayable. The general condition of the soul, therefore, is stoic hunger, stoic loneliness. Paul Eluard wrote, “There is another world, and it is in this one.” The not so good poem isn’t able to startle us into consideration of that world. The soul is never pricked into wakefulness. "
― Stephen Dunn , Walking Light: Memoirs and Essays on Poetry
62 " The good poem simultaneously reveals and conceals. It is in this sense that it is mysterious. The not so good poem is often mysterious only by virtue of its concealment. Or it wears exotic clothing to hide its essential plainness. "
63 " I still smell it, that clean, lingering scent of misfortune. It’s what keeps me alert, makes each new day bearable. "
― Stephen Dunn , Pagan Virtues: Poems
64 " The Sudden Light and the Trees"My neighbor was a biker, a pusher, a dogand wife beater.In bad dreams I killed himand once, in the consequential light of day,I called the Humane Societyabout Blue, his dog. They took her awayand I readied myself, a baseball batinside my door.That night I hear his wife screamand I couldn't help it, that patheticrelief; her again, not me.It would be years before I'd understandwhy victims cling and forgive. I plugged inthe Sleep-Sound and it crashedlike the ocean all the way to sleep.One afternoon I found himon the stoop,a pistol in his hand, waiting,he said, for me. A sparrow had gotten into our common basement.Could he have permissionto shoot it? The bullets, he explained,might go through the floor.I said I'd catch it, wait, give mea few minutes and, clear-eyed, brilliantlyafraid, I trapped itwith a pillow. I remember how it feltwhen I got my hand, and how it burstthat hand openwhen I took it outside, a strengththat must have come out of hopelessnessand the sudden lightand the trees. And I rememberthe way he slapped the gun againsthis open palm,kept slapping it, and wouldn't speak.. "
― Stephen Dunn
65 " There will always be people who think suffering leads to enlightenment, who place themselves on the verge of what’s about to break, or go dangerously wrong. Let’s resist them and their thinking, you and I. Let’s not rush toward that sure thing that awaits us, which can dumb us into nonsense and pain. "
66 " historical. Outside, waiting to be seated: Illness, Boredom, Sorrow. Loneliness already seated, dining with a group. "
67 " MRS. CAVENDISH SPEAKS OF THE UNFORGIVABLE More than once I’ve permitted in myself what I wouldn’t forgive in others. "
68 " Those of us who think we know"Those of us who think we knowthe same secretsare silent together most of the time,for us there is eloquencein desire, and for a whilewhen in love and exhaustedit’s enough to nod like shy horsesand come togetherin a quiet ceremony of tongues. It’s in disappointment we look for wordsto convince usthe spaces between stars are nothingto worry about;it’s when those secrets burstin that emptiness between our heartsand the lumps in our throats.And the words we findare always insufficient, like love,though they are often lovelyand all we have. "
― Stephen Dunn , New and Selected Poems, 1974-1994
69 " I like the word “only” in the last sentence: “…you are only a troubled guest / on the dark earth.” The “only” suggests that to be a troubled guest is a normal condition, and that you might have many other identities at the same time. But to be only a troubled guest is of course a particularly sad identity. "