#everynightapoem

In youth I knew nothing of the taste of sorrow I liked to climb high towers I liked to climbed high towers To conjure up a bit of sorrow to make new verse. Now I know only too well the taste of sorrow I start to speak yet pause I start to speak yet pause And say instead, "My, what a cool and lovely autumn." -辛棄疾 Xin Qiji (1140-1207) Seeking respite from lies and obfuscation so #everynightapoem. Tonight: the 12thc warrior-poet Xin Qiji 辛棄疾, during whose lifetime China was occupied. Xin fought the Jurchens, but was then sidelined during peacetime by a court that believed in appeasement. For most of the remainder of his life, Xin drifted through a series of minor official posts in remote lands - and so he wrote. This ci lyric is one of his best known pieces- poetry, then, as what is left unsaid. #everynightapoem #poems #wordsmatter #chinesepoetry #xinqiji #ci #辛棄疾 #詞 #宋代 #chineseliterature #bookstagram #書摘

While they kissed with not our lips, a suitcase disappeared, not mine. — Somewhere else. Somewhere else. How these little words ring. -Wisława Szymborska, “The Railroad Station.” (T. Stanisław Barańczak and Clare Cavanagh)

now it is time to be summer it is time for that departure -WS Merwin, “First of June” #everynightapoem

“A quiet desolation is more resonant [than the bluntly tragic]. Like pairing scallion green with peach pink, it is the skewed contrast that lingers.” -Eileen Chang, “On My Own Writing” (1944) 「..像蔥綠配桃紅，是一种參差的對照。 」-張愛玲，自己的文章 #everynightapoem #ofsorts #eileenchang #張愛玲 #參差 #onwriting

“For women, then, poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action. Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought.” -Audre Lorde, 1977 Collected in Sister Outsider, (Crossing Press, 1984) #thisiswhy #everynightapoem #BlackHistoryMonth #audrelorde

“There are two places: home, away. I lack / a map that shows me anywhere but those.” -Ursula K. Le Guin, “GPS” from Finding My Elegy: New and Selected Poems, 1969-2010 Tonight: safe flight, safe travels to the great Le Guin. . #everynightapoem #ursulakleguin #restinpeace #poem #elegy

Let me begin again as a speck of dust caught in the night winds sweeping out to sea. Let me begin this time knowing the world is salt water and dark clouds, the world is grinding and sighing all night, and dawn comes slowly and changes nothing. -Philip Levine #everynightapoem #poem #poetry #philiplevine #january

"Rose Hashanah" by Lucille Clifton #everynightapoem