what were your favourite quotes/those with the most impact that you read this year?
 iâm expanding this to talk about poems and collections too because i am That Guy.Â
POETRY COLLECTIONS and CHAPBOOKS
NIGHT SKY WITH EXIT WOUNDS by OCEAN VUONG
[INSERT] BOY by DANEZ SMITH
BRIGHT DEAD THINGS BY ADA LIMĂN
âwandering around an albuquerque airport terminalâ by naomi shihab nye (not everything is lost.)
âgood bonesâ by maggie smith (this place could be beautiful, / right? you could make this place beautiful)
âtim riggins speaks of waterfallsâ by nico alvarado (i want to walk into the heart of you / and never walk back out)
âuntitledâ by daedalians (my brain is moonless)
âwhen you tell me iâm beautiful i sometimes believe it by tangledghosts aka the light of my life (i say, âthese are all the ugly parts that i am trying to hide.â you say, âshow me your ugliness and i will show you your beauty.â we are both showing the same card)
âitâs not what it looks likeâ by exit152Â (god or no god? / rhetorical question. / iâve met the boundary. / i feel something holy in every trick of light)
twenty dollars & the moon by mason shreve (sometimes we float when we try to walk & sometimes, i swear, my hands are made of canyons)
âi myself have lots of repressed skies / but i do not kill starsâ || kiki dimoula, âexplosive findingâ
âlike any / unloved thing, i donât know if iâm real / when iâm not being touchedâ || natalie wee, âlonelinessâÂ
âi thought / i would be someone else / by now. the rain starts flinging itself / against the pavement. my face / is a lost glove, missing / for days. my face / is on vacation, call back / another time.â || marty mcconnell, âstill life with tattoo gun and umbrellaâ
âgod is the night / i must not creep intoâ || cynthia cruz, âjoe the lion iiâÂ
âhow lonely to be something that nothing wants to killâ || jeremy radin, âso i locked myself inside of a star for 20 yearsâ
âyou cut up a thing thatâs alive and beautiful to find out how itâs alive and why itâs beautiful, and before you know it, itâs neither of those things, and youâre standing there with blood on your face and tears in your sight and only the terrible ache of guilt to show for it.â || clive barker, the damnation gameÂ
âi am sick of haunting myself / from within / like an old houseâ || erica jong, âbitter herbâ
âhow strange we are. how different we are from how we think we are. we fall out of love only to fall in love with a duplicate of what weâve left, never understanding that we love what we love and that it doesnât change.â || sara majka; saint andrews hotel
âi sit up in the dark drenched in longing. / i am carrying over a thousand names for blue that I didnât have at dusk.â || joy harjo, âthe first day without a motherâÂ
âthe sycamore of loneliness they call it / daydreams while the ax is still afraid / of being aloneâ || frank stanford, ânobody is going to touch meâÂ
âyou think i canât tame that? i always come home. always. / ravenous. loaded. you know better than anybody: / iâm bigger than god.â || jeanann verlee, âthe mania speaksâÂ
âi will not / let this river break me just so god / can have something to heal.â || allie long, âself-injuryâ
âa small catalogue of things iâve lost: my heart down a sink drain. my voice in the dungeon of language. my body to the great gripping fists of men.â || alicia catt, âwhen i put bluebeardâs keys in my pocket they stain my dress & i hope you donât noticeÂ
ânothing knows the sound of abandonment like a highway does, not even God.â || hanif abdurraqib, âwhen we were 13, jeffâs father left the needle down on a journey record before leaving the house one morning and never coming backÂ
âthe sounds in the air / agreeing not to be birds.â || alexis almeida, âelegy (figure in light)
âi have wanted / many unfair things. / what is most unfair/ is that the earth is still okay / with me being here / i think, and even / encourages it.â || melissa broder, âsatisfy the desolateâÂ
âyou donât want to hear the story / of my life, and anyway / i donât want to tell it, i want to listen / to the enormous waterfalls of the sun. / and anyway itâs the same old storyâ / a few people just trying, / one way or another, / to survive. / mostly, i want to be kind.â || mary oliver, âdogfishâ