Robert Hayden Quotes

• We must not be frightened nor cajoled into accepting evil as deliverance from evil. We must go on struggling to be human, though monsters of abstractions police and threaten us.

  Robert Hayden

  Struggle, Evil, Political

  Robert Hayden (2013). “Collected Poems”, p.98, W. W. Norton & Company

  48 Copy quote

• Art is not escape, but a way of finding order in chaos, a way of confronting life.

  Robert Hayden

  Art, Order, Way

  Robert Earl Hayden, Frederick Glaysher (1984). “Collected Prose”, p.115, University of Michigan Press

  53 Copy quote

• As you continue writing and rewriting, you begin to see possibilities you hadn't seen before. Writing a poem is always a process of discovery.

  Robert Hayden

  Writing, Discovery, Possibility

  Robert Earl Hayden (1984). “Collected Prose”, p.156, University of Michigan Press

  54 Copy quote

• I believe it's true that one person can make a difference. But how much more difference 100 people make, or rather 99.

  Robert Hayden

  Believe, Differences, People

  49 Copy quote

• This freedom, this liberty, this beautiful and terrible thing, needful to man as air, usable as earth.

  Robert Hayden

  Beautiful, Men, Air

  Robert Hayden (2013). “Collected Poems”, p.62, W. W. Norton & Company

  37 Copy quote

• [My poetry is] a way of coming to grips with reality . . . a way of discovery and definition. It is a way of solving for the unknowns.

  Robert Hayden

  Reality, Discovery, Definitions

  Robert Earl Hayden (1984). “Collected Prose”, p.27, University of Michigan Press

  33 Copy quote

• Runs falls rises stumbles on from darkness into darkness
  and the darkness thicketed with shapes of terror
  and the hunters pursuing and the hounds pursuing
  and the night cold and the night long and the river
  to cross and the jack-muh-lanterns beckoning beckoning
  and blackness ahead

  Robert Hayden

  Running, Fall, Night

  Robert Hayden (2013). “Collected Poems”, p.59, W. W. Norton & Company

  31 Copy quote

• As well have a talon as a finger, a muzzle as a mouth,
  as well have a hollow as a heart.

  Robert Hayden

  Heart, Muzzle, Mouths

  Robert Earl Hayden, Frederick Glaysher (1984). “Collected Prose”, p.152, University of Michigan Press

  23 Copy quote

• It seemed to me as we were talking about Christ rising from the dead, the sun popped over the mountain. That was indicative of Christ rising - a new day. It just makes sense.

  Robert Hayden

  Talking, New Day, Mountain

  17 Copy quote

• Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fire blazes. No one ever thanked him.

  Robert Hayden

  Father, Sunday, Weather

  Robert Hayden (2013). “Collected Poems”, p.41, W. W. Norton & Company

  17 Copy quote

• Your presence was shore where I rested/ released from the hoodoo of that dance, where I spoke/ with my true voice again.

  Robert Hayden

  Dance, Voice, Spokes

  Robert Earl Hayden, Frederick Glaysher (1984). “Collected Prose”, p.153, University of Michigan Press

  20 Copy quote

• Standing to America, bringing home
  black gold, black ivory, black seed.

  Robert Hayden

  Home, Ivory, America

  Robert Earl Hayden, Frederick Glaysher (1984). “Collected Prose”, p.163, University of Michigan Press

  15 Copy quote

• Harriet Tubman,
  
  woman of earth, whipscarred,
  a summoning, a shinning

  Robert Hayden

  Slavery, Earth, Summoning

  Robert Earl Hayden, Frederick Glaysher (1984). “Collected Prose”, p.181, University of Michigan Press

  19 Copy quote

• What did I know, what did I know
  of love's austere and lonely offices?

  Robert Hayden

  Lonely, Office, Knows

  "ThoseWinter Sundays" l. 10 (1962)

  13 Copy quote

• Shuttles in the rocking loom of history,
  the dark ships move, the dark ships move,
  their bright ironical names
  like jests of kindness on a murderer's mouth

  Robert Hayden

  Kindness, Moving, Dark

  Robert Earl Hayden (1984). “Collected Prose”, p.166, University of Michigan Press

  14 Copy quote

• Midnight Special on a sabre track movering movering,
  first stop Mercy and the last Hallelujah.

  Robert Hayden

  Track, Special, Midnight

  Robert Earl Hayden, Frederick Glaysher (1984). “Collected Prose”, p.182, University of Michigan Press

  15 Copy quote

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