Jane Kenyon Quotes

• Be a good steward of your gifts. Protect your time. Feed your inner life. Avoid too much noise. Read good books, have good sentences in your ears. Be by yourself as often as you can. Walk. Take the phone off the hook. Work regular hours.

  Jane Kenyon

  Inspirational, Life, Time

  Jane Kenyon, Anna Andreevna Akhmatova (1999). “A hundred white daffodils: essays, the Akhmatova translations, newspaper columns, notes, interviews, and one poem”, Graywolf Pr

  75 Copy quote

• If it's darkness we're having, let it be extravagant.

  Jane Kenyon

  Darkness, Extravagant, Ifs

  Jane Kenyon (1990). “Let evening come: poems”, Graywolf Pr

  27 Copy quote

• The poet's job is to put into words those feelings we all have that are so deep, so important, and yet so difficult to name, to tell the truth in such a beautiful way, that people cannot live without it.

  Jane Kenyon

  Beautiful, Jobs, Truth

  20 Copy quote

• If you want a different life, you gotta start doing and learning different things.

  Jane Kenyon

  Different, Want, Ifs

  17 Copy quote

• The soul's bliss and suffering are bound together.

  Jane Kenyon

  Soul, Suffering, Together

  Jane Kenyon (2005). “Collected Poems”, Graywolf Press

  13 Copy quote

• Otherwise I got out of bed on two strong legs. It might have been otherwise. I ate cereal, sweet milk, ripe, flawless peach. It might have been otherwise. I took the dog uphill to the birch wood. All morning I did the work I love. At noon I lay down with my mate. It might have been otherwise. We ate dinner together at a table with silver candlesticks. It might have been otherwise. I slept in a bed in a room with paintings on the walls, and planned another day just like this day. But one day, I know, it will be otherwise.

  Jane Kenyon

  Dog, Sweet, Strong

  Jane Kenyon (1996). “Otherwise: new and selected poems”, Graywolf Pr

  18 Copy quote

• A poet's job is to find a name for everything: to be a fearless finder of the names of things.

  Jane Kenyon

  Jobs, Names, Poetry

  13 Copy quote

• There's just no accounting for happiness, or the way it turns up like a prodigal who comes back to the dust at your feet having squandered a fortune far away.

  Jane Kenyon

  Feet, Dust, Way

  Jane Kenyon (1996). “Otherwise: new and selected poems”, Graywolf Pr

  9 Copy quote

• My ear is not working, my poetry ear. I can't write a line that doesn't sound like pots and pans falling out of the cupboard.

  Jane Kenyon

  Fall, Writing, Poetry

  13 Copy quote

• I am the one whose love overcomes you, already with you when you think to call my name.

  Jane Kenyon

  Thinking, Names, Overcoming

  Jane Kenyon (2005). “Collected Poems”, Graywolf Press

  7 Copy quote

• Let it come, as it will, and don't be afraid. God does not leave us comfortless, so let evening come.

  Jane Kenyon

  Doe, Evening

  Jane Kenyon (1990). “Let evening come: poems”, Graywolf Pr

  8 Copy quote

• Everyone longs for love's tense joys and red delights.

  Jane Kenyon

  Joy, Delight, Red

  Jane Kenyon (2005). “Collected Poems”, Graywolf Press

  7 Copy quote

• I divested myself of despair and fear when I came here. Now there is no more catching one's own eye in the mirror, there are no bad books, no plastic, no insurance premiums, and of cours eno illness. Contrition does not exist, nor gnashing of teeth. No one howls as the first clod of earth hits the casket. The poor we no longer have with us. Our calm hearts strike only the hour, and God, as promised, proves to be mercy clothed in light.

  Jane Kenyon

  Book, Heart, Eye

  Jane Kenyon, “Notes From The Other Side”

  11 Copy quote

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