Anne Sexton Quotes - Page 10

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• The family story tells, and it was told true,
  of my great-grandfather who begat eight
  genius children and bought twelve almost new
  grand pianos. He left a considerable estate
  when he died.

  Anne Sexton

  Children, Piano, Eight

  Anne Sexton (1964). “Selected poems”

  4 Copy quote

• With this pen I take in hand my selves
  and with these dead disciples I will grapple.
  Though rain curses the window
  let the poem be made.

  Anne Sexton

  Rain, Self, Hands

  5 Copy quote

• Then God spoke to me and said:
  People say only good things about Christmas.
  If they want to say something bad,
  they whisper.

  Anne Sexton

  Christmas, God, Jesus

  Anne Sexton, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Diana Hume George (2000). “Selected Poems of Anne Sexton”, p.200, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  4 Copy quote

• There is an animal inside me,
  clutching fast to my heart,
  a huge crab.

  Anne Sexton

  Heart, Animal, Crabs

  Anne Sexton (1975). “The Awful Rowing Toward God”, Boston : Houghton Mifflin

  5 Copy quote

• My objects dream and wear new costumes,
  compelled to, it seems, by all the words in my hands
  and the sea that bangs in my throat.

  Anne Sexton

  Dream, Hands, Sea

  Anne Sexton (1975). “The Awful Rowing Toward God”, Boston : Houghton Mifflin

  4 Copy quote

• Now, in my middle age,
  about nineteen in the head I'd say,
  I am rowing, I am rowing.

  Anne Sexton

  Age, Nineteen, Aging

  Anne Sexton, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Diana Hume George (2000). “Selected Poems of Anne Sexton”, p.229, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  4 Copy quote

• I am out of practice at living.
  You are as brave as a motorcycle.

  Anne Sexton

  Life, Practice, Brave

  Anne Sexton, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Diana Hume George (2000). “Selected Poems of Anne Sexton”, p.258, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  9 Copy quote

• I must always forget how one word is able to pick out another, to manner another, until I have got something I might have said... but did not.

  Anne Sexton

  Might, Able, Forget

  Anne Sexton, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Diana Hume George (2000). “Selected Poems of Anne Sexton”, p.17, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  5 Copy quote

• we do not explain my husband's insane abuse
  and we do not say why your wild-haired wife has fled
  or that my father opened like a walnut and then was dead.
  Your palms fold over me like knees. Love is the only use.

  Anne Sexton

  Family, Husband, Father

  Anne Sexton (1964). “Selected poems”

  6 Copy quote

• I who was a house full of bowel movement,
  I who was a defaced altar,
  I who wanted to crawl toward God
  could not move nor eat bread.

  Anne Sexton

  God, Moving, House

  Anne Sexton (1975). “The Awful Rowing Toward God”, Boston : Houghton Mifflin

  4 Copy quote

• No matter whose bed you die in
  the bed will be yours
  for your voyage
  onto the surgical andiron
  of God.

  Anne Sexton

  Faith, Bed, Matter

  5 Copy quote

• The man inside of woman ties a knot so that they will never again be separate.

  Anne Sexton

  Men, Ties, Knots

  Anne Sexton, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Diana Hume George (2000). “Selected Poems of Anne Sexton”, p.233, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  5 Copy quote

• Every time I get happy
  the Nana-hex comes through.
  Birds turn into plumber's tools,
  a sonnet turns into a dirty joke,
  a wind turns into a tracheotomy,
  a boat turns into a corpse.

  Anne Sexton

  Happiness, Depression, Dirty

  4 Copy quote

• All the oxygen of the world was in them.
  All the feet of the babies of the world were in them.
  All the crotches of the angels of the world were in them.
  All the morning kisses of Philadelphia were in them.

  Anne Sexton

  Happiness, Baby, Morning

  Anne Sexton (1978). “Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

  4 Copy quote

• I did not know the woman I would be
  nor that blood would bloom in me
  each month like an exotic flower,
  nor that children,
  two monuments,
  would break from between my legs.

  Anne Sexton

  Children, Growing Up, Flower

  4 Copy quote

• So I won't hang around in my hospital shift,
  repeating The Black Mass and all of it.
  I say Live, Live because of the sun,
  the dream, the excitable gift.

  Anne Sexton

  Life, Dream, Black

  Anne Sexton, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Diana Hume George (2000). “Selected Poems of Anne Sexton”, p.119, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  5 Copy quote

• I would sell my life to avoid
  the pain that begins in the crib
  with its bars or perhaps
  with your first breath
  when the planets drill
  your future into you.

  Anne Sexton

  Life, Pain, Bars

  Anne Sexton (1976). “45 Mercy Street”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

  5 Copy quote

• I love the word warm.
  It is almost unbearable--
  so moist and breathlike.

  Anne Sexton

  Experience, Unbearable, Warm

  Anne Sexton (1978). “Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

  4 Copy quote

• Our children tremble in their teen-age cribs,
  whirling off on a thumb or a motorcycle.

  Anne Sexton

  Children, Maturity, Motorcycle

  Anne Sexton (1976). “45 Mercy Street”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

  13 Copy quote

• True. There is
  a beautiful Jesus.
  He is frozen to his bones like a chunk of beef.
  How desperately he wanted to pull his arms in!
  How desperately I touch his vertical and horizontal axes!
  But I can't. Need is not quite belief.

  Anne Sexton

  Beautiful, God, Jesus

  Anne Sexton, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Diana Hume George (2000). “Selected Poems of Anne Sexton”, p.57, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  4 Copy quote

• For I could not read or speak and on the long nights I could not turn the moon off or count the lights of cars across the ceiling.

  Anne Sexton

  Moon, Night, Light

  Anne Sexton, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Diana Hume George (2000). “Selected Poems of Anne Sexton”, p.220, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  5 Copy quote

• Daylight is nobody's friend. God comes in like a landlord and flashes on his brassy lamp.

  Anne Sexton

  Morning, Lamps, Daylight

  Anne Sexton (1999). “Love Poems”, p.30, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  5 Copy quote

• There is a good look that I wear
  like a blood clot. I have
  sewn it over my left breast.
  I have made a vocation of it.

  Anne Sexton

  Heart, Blood, Looks

  Anne Sexton, “Again And Again And Again”

  4 Copy quote

• Big heart,
  wide as a watermelon,
  but wise as birth,
  there is so much abundance
  in the people I have.

  Anne Sexton

  Wise, Heart, People

  Anne Sexton (1975). “The Awful Rowing Toward God”, Boston : Houghton Mifflin

  4 Copy quote

• After a disaster strikes, it can be very devastating and very challenging. You're going to need a lot of strength and energy, and the American Red Cross suggests you go for the high protein items.

  Anne Sexton

  Challenges, Energy, Needs

  9 Copy quote

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