Mark Strand Quotes - Page 2

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I haven’t met God and I haven’t been to heaven, so I’m skeptical.

Mark Strand

Heaven, Mets, Skeptical

"Mark Strand, former US poet laureate, dies aged 80". www.theguardian.com. November 29, 2014.

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Usually a life turned into a poem is misrepresented.

Mark Strand

Poetry, Poetic

"In The Presence Of America: A Conversation With Mark Strand". Interview with Katharine Coles, weberstudies.weber.edu. 1992.

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From the reader's view, a poem is more demanding than prose.

Mark Strand

Book, Views, Reader

"In The Presence Of America: A Conversation With Mark Strand". Interview with Katharine Coles, weberstudies.weber.edu. 1992.

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In a field I am the absence of field.That is always the case. Wherever I am, I am what is missing. When I walk I part the air and always the air moves in to fill the space where my body has been. We all have reasons for moving. I move to keep things whole.

Mark Strand

Moving, Garden, Air

"Keeping Things Whole" l. 14 (1969)

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No voice comes from outer space, from the folds of dust and carpets of wind to tell us that this is the way it was meant to happen, that if only we knew how long the ruins would last we would never complain.

Mark Strand

Space, Dust, Wind

Mark Strand (2014). “Collected Poems”, p.334, Knopf

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The reality of a poem is a very ghostly one. It suggests, it suggests, it suggests again.

Mark Strand

Reality

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Even this late it happens: the coming of love, the coming of light.

Mark Strand

Light, Late, Happens

Mark Strand (2014). “Collected Poems”, p.166, Knopf

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Those hours given over to basking in the glow of an imagined future, of being carried away in streams of promise by a love or a passion so strong that one felt altered forever and convinced that even the smallest particle of the surrounding world was charged with purpose of impossible grandeur; ah, yes, and one would look up into the trees and be thrilled by the wind- loosened river of pale, gold foliage cascading down and by the high, melodious singing of countless birds; those moments, so many and so long ago, still come back, but briefly, like fireflies in the perfumed heat of summer night.

Mark Strand

Summer, Strong, Passion

Mark Strand (2014). “Collected Poems”, p.406, Knopf

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I believe that all poetry is formal in that it exists within limits, limits that are either inherited by tradition or limits that language itself imposes.

Mark Strand

Believe, Limits, Language

Mark Strand (2000). “The Weather of Words: Poetic Invention”, Alfred a Knopf Incorporated

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Nothing is the destiny of everyone, it is our commonness made dumb.

Mark Strand

Fate, Destiny, Dumb

Mark Strand (2014). “Collected Poems”, p.208, Knopf

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It came to my house. It sat on my shoulders. Your shadow is yours. I told it so. I said it was yours. I have carried it with me too long. I give it back.

Mark Strand

Long, Giving, House

Mark Strand (2007). “New Selected Poems”, Knopf

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And what does it matter when light enters the room where a child sleeps and the waking mother, opening her eyes, wishes more than anything to be unwakened by what she cannot name?

Mark Strand

Mother, Children, Sleep

Mark Strand (2014). “Collected Poems”, p.434, Knopf

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I think the best American poetry is the poetry that utilizes the resources of poetry rather than exploits the defects or triumphs of the poet's personality.

Mark Strand

Thinking, Personality, Triumph

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I tend to like poems that engage me - that is to say, which do not bore me.

Mark Strand

Engagement, Bores

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It's very hard to write humor.

Mark Strand

Writing, Humor, Hard

"In the Presence of America: A Conversation with Mark Strand". Interview with Katharine Coles, weberstudies.weber.edu. 1992.

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Sometimes he did not know if he slept or just thought about sleep.

Mark Strand

Sleep, Sometimes, Knows

Mark Strand (2014). “Collected Poems”, p.153, Knopf

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How those fires burned that are no longer, how the weather worsened, how the shadow of the seagull vanished without a trace. Was it the end of a season, the end of a life? Was it so long ago it seems it might never have been? What is it in us that lives in the past and longs for the future, or lives in the future and longs for the past? (from "No Words Can Describe It")

Mark Strand

Past, Fire, Long Ago

Mark Strand (2014). “Collected Poems”, p.434, Knopf

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I don't really think it will make much difference to me when I'm dead whether I'm read or not . . . just as whether I'm dead or not won't mean much to me when I'm dead.

Mark Strand

Mean, Thinking, Differences

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From the shadow of domes in the city of domes,
A snowflake, a blizzard of one, weightless, entered your room
And made its way to the arm of the chair where you, looking up
From your book, saw it the moment it landed. That's all
There was to it.

Mark Strand

Book, Cities, Shadow

Mark Strand (2014). “Collected Poems”, p.344, Knopf

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And yet, in a culture like ours, which is given to material comforts, and addicted to forms of entertainment that offer immediate gratification, it is surprising that so much poetry is written.

Mark Strand

Comfort, Culture, Entertainment

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...In another time, What cannot be seen will define us, and we shall be prompted To say that language is error, and all things are wronged By representation. The self, we shall say, can never be Seen with a disguise, and never be seen without one.

Mark Strand

Errors, Self, Language

Mark Strand (2014). “Collected Poems”, p.346, Knopf

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Poetry is something that happens in universities, in creative writing programs or in English departments.

Mark Strand

Writing, Creative, Program

"In the Presence of America: A Conversation with Mark Strand". Interview with Katharine Coles, www.weber.edu. 1992.

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I have been eating poetry.

Mark Strand

Eating, Has Beens

"Eating Poetry" l. 1 (1980)

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There's a certain point, when you're writing autobiographical stuff, where you don't want to misrepresent yourself. It would be dishonest.

Mark Strand

Writing, Would Be, Want

Interview with Katharine Coles, weberstudies.weber.edu. 1992.

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And Robert Lowell, of course - in his poems, we're not located in his actual life. We're located more in the externals, in the journalistic facts of his life.

Mark Strand

True Life, Facts, Courses

"In The Presence Of America: A Conversation With Mark Strand". Interview with Katharine Coles, weberstudies.weber.edu. 1992.

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Born: April 11, 1934
Died: November 29, 2014
Occupation: Poet
Cite this Page: Citation

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