Just as I wonder whether it's going to die, the orchid blossoms and I can't explain why it … - Sam Hamill

Same topic Authors

Quote of the day

Driven by the forces of love, the fragments of the world seek each other so that the world may come into being. . . . the universal gravity of bodies,. . . is merely the reverse or shadow of that which really moves nature. Love in all its subtleties is nothing more, and nothing less, than the more or less direct trace marked on the heart of the element by the psychical convergence of the universe upon itself.

Sam Hamill

Just as I wonder whether it's going to die, the orchid blossoms and I can't explain why it moves my heart, why such pleasure comes from one small bud on a long spindly stem, one blood red gold flower opening at mid-summer, tiny, perfect in its hour.

Die, Flower, Spring, Summer, Tiny, Wonder

Same Author Quotes

The only thing we all agree on, virtually every poet in this country, is that this Administration is really frightening, and we want something done about it.

Country, Want Something, Done, Administration, Virtually

If only we could touch the things of this world at their center, if we could only hear tiny leaves of birch struggling toward April, then we would know.

Knowledge, Leaves, Struggle, Struggling, Touch, World

Poetry teaches us things that cannot be learned in prose, such as certain kinds of irony or the importance of the unsaid. The most important element of any poem is the part that is left unsaid. So the poetry frames the experience that lies beyond naming.

Lying, Important, Elements, Experience, Poem, Importance

Nothing will change until we demolish the "we-they" mentality. We are human, and therefore all human concerns are ours. And those concerns are personal.

Concern, Concerns, Demolish, Human, Humanity, Humans

I was a violent, self-destructive teenager, who was adopted right at the end of World War II. I was lied to and abused by my parents. I hated life in Utah. I resented the Mormon Church, its sense of superiority and its certitude. I escaped through the Beat writers and discovered poetry and have devoted my entire life to the practice of poetry in varying ways. Poetry gave me a reason for being. And I'm not exaggerating when I say that.

Teenager, War, Self, Gave, Varying, Devoted