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121 " Your thighs are appletreeswhose blossoms touch the sky.Which sky? The skywhere Watteau hung a lady'sslipper. Your kneesare a southern breeze--ora gust of snow. Agh! whatsort of man was Fragonard?--as if that answeredanything. Ah, yes--belowthe knees, since the tunedrops that way, it isone of those white summer days,the tall grass of your anklesflickers upon the shore--Which shore?--the sand clings to my lips--Which shore?Agh, petals maybe. Howshould I know?Which shore? Which shore?I said petals from an appletree. "
― William Carlos Williams
122 " The man of imagination who turns to art for release and fulfilment of his baby promises contends with the sky through the layers of demoded words and shapes. "
― William Carlos Williams , Spring and All
123 " In the mind there is a continual play of obscure images which coming between the eyes and their prey seem pictures on the screen at the movies. Sometimes there appears to be a maladjustment. The wish would be to see not floating visions of unknown purport but the imaginative qualities of the actual things being perceived accompany their gross vision in a slow dance, interpreting as they go. But inasmuch as this will not always be the case one must dance nevertheless as he can. "
124 " Observethe jasmine lightnessof the moon. "
― William Carlos Williams , Selected Poems
125 " This is the sadness of the sea—waves like words, all broken—a sameness of lifting and falling mood.I lean watching the detailof brittle crest, the delicateimperfect foam, yellow weedone piece like another—There is no hope—if not a coralisland slowly formingto wait for birds to dropthe seeds will make it habitable "
― William Carlos Williams ,
126 " Silence can be complex too,but you do not get farwith silence. "
127 " Our dreamshave been assaultedby a memory that will notsleep "
128 " If you are not already too blindtoo deaf, too lost in the pastto know or to care—I will write a book about you—making you live (in a book!)as you still desperatelywant to live—to live always—unforgiving "
― William Carlos Williams , The Collected Earlier Poems
129 " Imagination is not to avoid reality, nor is it description nor an evocation of objects or situations, it is to say that poetry does not tamper with the world but moves it — It affirms reality most powerfully and therefore, since reality needs no personal support but exists free from human action, as proven by science in the indestructibility of matter and of force, it creates a new object, a play, a dance which is not a mirror up to nature but —As birds’ wings beat the solid air without which none could fly so words freed by the imagination affirm reality by their flight "
130 " Clean is he aloneafter whom streamthe broken pieces of the city—flying apart at his approaches "
131 " Падение, вызванное отчаянием,И без достиженийПриводит к новому пробуждению:Которое — возрождение отчаяния.Чего мы не можем достичь,Что запрещено нам любить,Что потеряли мы в ожидании —За этим следует падение. "
― William Carlos Williams , Paterson
132 " prose has to do with the fact of an emotion ; poetry has to do with the dynamisation of emotion into a separate form. This is the force of imagination.prose : statement of facts concerning emotions, intellectua states, data of all sorts - technical expositions, jargon of all sorts - fictional and other - poetry : new form dealt with as a reality in itself. "
133 " Time does not move. Only ignorance and stupidity move. Intelligence (force, power) stands still with time and forces change about itself - sifting the world for permanence, in the drift of nonentity. "
134 " The sea that encloses her young. bodyula lu la luis the sea of many arms -The blazing secrecy of noon is undoneand and andthe broken sand is the sound of love - "
135 " Vast and grey, the skyis a simulacrumto all but him whose daysare vast and grey, and―In the tall, dried grassesa goat stirswith nozzle searching the ground.―my head is in the airbut who am I . . ?And amazed my heart leaps at the thought of lovevast and greyyearning silently over me. "
― William Carlos Williams , The Collected Poems, Vol. 1: 1909-1939
136 " Sweep the house cleanhere is one who has gone up(though problematically)to heaven, blindlyby force of the facts-a clean sweepis one way of expressing it- "
137 " Prose, relieved of extraneous, unrelated values must return to its only purpose : to clarity to enlighten the understanding. There is no form to prose but that which depends on clarity. If prose is not acurately adjusted to the exposition of facts it does not exist - Its form is that alone. To penetrate everywhere with enlightenment - Poetry is something quite different. Poetry has to do with the crystalization of the imagination - the perfection of new forms as addition to nature - Prose may follow to enlighten but poetry - Is what I have written prose ? The only answer is that form in prose ends with the end of that which is being communicated - If that power to go on falters in the middle of a sentence - that is the end of the sentence - Or if a new phase enters at that point it is only stupidity to go on. "
138 " Imagination is not to avoid reality, nor is it description nor an evocation of objects or situations, it is to say that poetry does not tamper with the world but moves it - It affirms reality most powerfully and therefore, since reality needs no personal support but exists free from human action, as proven by science in the indestructibility of matter and of force, it creates a new object, a play, a dance which is not a mirror up to nature but - As birds' wings beat the solid air without which none could fly so words freed by the imagination affirm reality by their flight. "
139 " the sky goes out if you should fail. "
140 " The province of the poem is the world. When the sun rises, it rises in the poem and when it sets darkness comes down and the poem is dark "