Charles Olson Quotes - Page 2

• what can we do
  when even the public conveyances
  sing?
  how can we go anywhere,
  even cross-town
  how get out of anywhere

  Charles Olson

  Singing, Towns, Crosses

  Charles Olson (1966). “Selected Writings of Charles Olson”, p.230, New Directions Publishing

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• love is form, and cannot be without
  important substance

  Charles Olson

  Love, Important, Substance

  Charles Olson, Frances Boldereff, Ralph Maud, Sharon Thesen (1999). “Charles Olson and Frances Boldereff: A Modern Correspondence”, p.336, Wesleyan University Press

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• Fact is based upon vulgar matter.

  Charles Olson

  Matter, Facts, Vulgar

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• one loves only form, and form only comes into existence when the thing is born.

  Charles Olson

  One Love, Form, Born

  1953 TheMaximus Poems,'I, Maximus of Gloucester, To You, 4'.

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• I sound like Homer. I mean Winslow Homer.

  Charles Olson

  Mean, Sound, Imitation

  Charles Olson (1979). “Muthologos: the collected lectures & interviews”

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• ONE PERCEPTION MUST IMMEDIATELY AND DIRECTLY LEAD TO A FURTHER PERCEPTION

  Charles Olson

  Perception

  Charles Olson (1966). “Selected Writings of Charles Olson”, p.17, New Directions Publishing

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• You can do anything, really. And that, l think, is one of the exciting possibilities of the present, l swear, is the possibility that the goddamn thing can be modaled throughout.

  Charles Olson

  Umpires, Possibility, Exciting

  "Muthologos: the collected lectures & interviews".

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• bees
  dig the plum blossoms

  Charles Olson

  Plums, Bees, Plum Blossoms

  Charles Olson (1966). “Selected Writings of Charles Olson”, p.213, New Directions Publishing

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• Not one death but many,
  not accumulation but change, the feed-back proves, the feed-back is
  the law

  Charles Olson

  Death, Law, Accumulation

  Charles Olson (1967). “In Cold Hell, in Thicket: Poems”

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• The body
  
  whips the soul. In its great desire
  it demands the elixir
  
  In the roar of spring,
  transmutations.

  Charles Olson

  Spring, Soul, Desire

  Charles Olson (1966). “Selected Writings of Charles Olson”, p.216, New Directions Publishing

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• I don't live for poetry. I live far more than anybody else does.

  Charles Olson

  Doe

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• I'm sorry, but I was born with a towel on my head.

  Charles Olson

  Sorry, Towels, Born

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• My life
  
  has been given its orders: the seasons
  seize
  
  the soul and the body, and make mock
  of any dispersed effort. The hour of death
  
  is the only trespass

  Charles Olson

  Life, Order, Effort

  Charles Olson (1966). “Selected Writings of Charles Olson”, p.214, New Directions Publishing

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• You don't help people in your poems. I've been trying to help people all my life - that's my trouble

  Charles Olson

  People, Poetry, Trying

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• Is it not the play of the mind we are after? Is it not that that shows a mind is there at all?

  Charles Olson

  Play, Mind, Shows

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• O.K. I'm running out of appetite. Let this swirl- a bit like Crab Nebula- do for now.

  Charles Olson

  Running, Nebula, Swirls

  Charles Olson (1997). “Collected Prose”, p.252, Univ of California Press

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• I was playing catch with the European audience.

  Charles Olson

  Audience, European Countries

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• I take space to be the central fact to man born in America. I spell it large because it comes large here. Large and without mercy.

  Charles Olson

  Men, America, Space

  1947 Call Me Ishmael, section1.

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• And all now is war
  where so lately there was peace,
  and the sweet brotherhood, the use
  of tilled fields.

  Charles Olson

  Sweet, War, Brotherhood

  Charles Olson (1997). “The Collected Poems of Charles Olson: Excluding the Maximus Poems”, p.89, Univ of California Press

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• Dead, hung up indoors, the kingfisher
  will not indicate a favoring wind,
  or avert the thunderbolt.

  Charles Olson

  Death, Wind, Thunderbolts

  Charles Olson (1997). “The Collected Poems of Charles Olson: Excluding the Maximus Poems”, p.87, Univ of California Press

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• The Canadian voice is still too rustic.

  Charles Olson

  Voice, Rustic, Critics

  Charles Olson (1979). “Muthologos: the collected lectures & interviews”

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• The heroes of the present will retreat to the imitation they are anyhow.

  Charles Olson

  Hero, Retreat, Imitation

  Charles Olson (1979). “Muthologos: the collected lectures & interviews”

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