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"The experiment of the poem is mostly intuitive. I write the first draft, pulling in the various elements that interest me, in the hope that their being combined will lead to some kind of insight."
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Exlpore more Hope quotes
"I put my pen to the paper and began to write. I'd made so many wishes for so many couples quietly in my head as they drove away, but writing the words out made it seem more real, possible. For them, and maybe for me.FOR YOU, I WISH FOR SECOND CHANCES.I folded it shut, then put it on the wall before I could change my mind, right above Jilly's. As Michael Salem called out to her and she started his way, I crossed the backyard, moving toward the music. When I looked back at the wish wall from a distance, it was a sea of squares: I couldn't even find mine among them. So many things we ask for, hope for, prayers put out into a world so wide: there was no way they could all be answered. But you had to keep asking. If you didn't, nothing even had a chance of coming true."
"Despair is not for the living but for those unable to rise and continue; they are the only souls with a right to it. It is an end where breath and strength and will have vanished, leaving no way to persevere. To sink into the abyss that is despair is to suffer an existence far worse than death; therefore, cling to its enemy, our ally-hope. For life goes on, and we must not live in despair. We must not."
"Melt all the tanks in the world and make them rubbish bins. They will be much more useful for the humanity!"
"God's forgiveness is not just a casual statement; it is the complete blotting out of all dirt and degradation of our past, present, and future."
"The New Year is a painting not yet painted; a path not yet stepped on; a wing not yet taken off! Things haven't happened as yet! Before the clock strikes twelve, remember that you are blessed with the ability to reshape your life!"
"As long as you look only at the situation in the world today, it will be very hard . . . to overcome your worries because it is true that there are many problems and the future is unknown to us. Lift your eyes beyond your circumstances and learn instead to trust God. Worrying . . . won't change anything."
"Let truth be told - women do as a rule live through such humiliations, and regain their spirits, and again look about them with an interested eye. While there's life there's hope is a connviction not so entirely unknown to the "betrayed" as some amiable theorists would have us believe."
Explore more quotes by John Barton
"Most victims of my autobiographical verse are either far too polite, remarkably understanding unaware that I have written poems about them."
"An experienced reader uses the poem as an agent of inquiry. This makes poetry very exciting, unstable, and interactive."
"We are comfortable with the fact that we cannot know personally what happened in the world before we were born, yet we are uncomfortable with the notion that we will stop engaging with time at some point in the future."
"Poets can't resist the dramatic pull of their lives and so inevitably write autobiographical verse."
"Writing can sometimes be exploitative. I like to take a few steps of remove in order to respect the privacy of the subject. If readers make the link, they have engaged with the poem."
"The poet must decide not to impose his feelings in order to write without sentimentality."
"The community of poets I belong to is not as close as it used to be, if only for the fact that our lives have become busier: jobs, children, and the like."
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