And yet one arrives somehow, finds himself loosening the hooks of her dress in a strange bedroom-- feels the autumn dropping its silk and linen leaves about her ankles. The tawdry veined body emerges twisted upon itself like a winter wind.
William Carlos WilliamsBut all art is sensual and poetry particularly so. It is directly, that is, of the senses, and since the senses do not exist without an object for their employment all art is necessarily objective. It doesn't declaim or explain, it presents.
William Carlos WilliamsSorrow is my own yard where the new grass flames as it has flamed often before but not with the cold fire that closes round me this year.
William Carlos WilliamsIt is not what you say that matters but the manner in which you say it; there lies the secret of the ages.
William Carlos WilliamsPoets are being pursued by the philosophers today, out of the poverty of philosophy. God damn it, you might think a man had no business to be writing, to be a poet unless some philosophic stinker gave him permission.
William Carlos WilliamsTHE THOUGHTFUL LOVER Deny yourself all half things. Have it or leave it. But it will keepโor it is not worth the having. Never start anything you can't finishโ However do not lose faith because you are starved! She loves you she says. Believe it โtomorrow. But today the particulars of poetry that difficult art require your whole attention.
William Carlos Williams