Hoping to live days of greater happiness, I forget that days of less happiness are passing by.
Elizabeth BishopBeing a poet is one of the unhealthier jobs--no regular hours, so many temptations!
Elizabeth BishopI am overcome by my own amazing sloth...Can you please forgive me and believe that it is really because I want to do something well that I don't do it at all?
Elizabeth BishopAnd as to experience-well, think how little some good poets have had, or how much some bad ones have.
Elizabeth BishopDreams were the worst. Of course I dreamed of food and love, but they were pleasant rather than otherwise. But then I'd dream of things like slitting a baby's throat, mistaking it for a baby goat. I'd have nightmares of other islands stretching away from mine, infinities of islands, islands spawning islands, like frogs' eggs turning into polliwogs of islands, knowing that I had to live on each and every one, eventually, for ages, registering their flora, their fauna, their geography.
Elizabeth Bishop