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We’re only here for a short while. And I think it’s such a lucky accident, having been born, that we’re almost obliged to pay attention.

Mark Strand

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Mark Strand
Age: 80 †
Born: 1934
Born: April 11
Died: 2014
Died: November 29
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Poet
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Think
Accident
Thinking
Accidents
Life
Short
Pay
Lucky
Almost
Essayists
Attention
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Born
Obliged

More quotes by Mark Strand

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I am not concerned with truth, nor with conventional notions of what is beautiful.
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Even this late it happens: the coming of love, the coming of light.
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Ink runs from the corners of my mouth. There is no happiness like mine. I have been eating poetry.
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From the reader's view, a poem is more demanding than prose.
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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.
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Even this late it happens the coming of love, the coming of light. You wake and the candles are lit as if by themselves, stars gather, dreams pour into your pillows, sending up warm bouquets of air. Even this late the bones of the body shine and tomorrow’s dust flares into breath.
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Poetry is, first and last, language - the rest is filler.
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When we walk in the sun our shadows are like barges of silence.
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I certainly can't speak for all cultures or all societies, but it's clear that in America, poetry serves a very marginal purpose. It's not part of the cultural mainstream.
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And at least in poetry you should feel free to lie. That is, not to lie, but to imagine what you want, to follow the direction of the poem.
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To open the dictionary of the Beyond and discover what one suspected, that the only word in it is nothing.
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In a field I am the absence of field. This is always the case. Wherever I am I am what is missing.
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A great many people seem to think writing poetry is worthwhile, even though it pays next to nothing and is not as widely read as it should be.
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Nothing is the destiny of everyone, it is our commonness made dumb.
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Poetry is about slowing down. You sit and you read something, you read it again, and it reveals a little bit more, and things come to light you never could have predicted.
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A life is not sufficiently elevated for poetry, unless, of course, the life has been made into an art.
Mark Strand
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Life makes writing poetry necessary to prove I really was paying attention.
Mark Strand
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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?
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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.
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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.
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