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Watch Out For Intellect

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I Sting With Life.
Not a red rose or a satin heart. I give you an onion. It is a moon wrapped in brown paper. It promises light like the careful undressing of love. Here. It will blind you with tears like a lover. It will make your reflection a wobbling photo of grief. I am trying to be truthful. Not a cute card or a kissogram. I give you an onion. Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips, possessive and faithful as we are, for as long as we are. Take it. Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring, if you like. Lethal. Its scent will cling to your fingers, cling to your knife.

Carol Ann Duffy - “Valentine” featured in Mean Time

When Rumi went into the tavern I followed. I heard a lot of crazy talk and a lot of wise talk. But the roses wouldn’t grow in my hair. When Rumi left the tavern I followed. I don’t mean just to peek at such a famous fellow. Indeed he was rather ridiculous with his long beard and his dusty feet. But I heard less of the crazy talk and a lot more of the wise talk and I was hopeful enough to keep listening until the day I found myself transformed into an entire garden of roses.

Mary Oliver, “RUMI” featured in Blue Horses

Dare to be yourself. I must underline that in my head too. Don't ever do anything through affectation or to make people like you or through imitation or for the pleasure of contradicting.  No Compromise (either ethical or artistic). Perhaps it is very dangerous for me to see other people; I always have a great desire to please; Perhaps I need Solitude.

Andre Gide, from a journal entry dated 10th June, 1891 featured in Journals: 1889 - 1913

Poetry is a political action undertaken for the sake of information, the faith, the exorcism, and the lyrical invention, that telling the truth makes possible. Poetry means taking control of the language of your life. Good poems can interdict a suicide, rescue a love affair, and build a revolution in which speaking and listening to somebody becomes the first and last purpose of every social encounter.

June Jordan, from the introduction to Poetry for the People: A Revolutionary Blueprint