“How does one grow up?” I asked a friend the other day. There was a slight pause; then she answered, “By thinking.” May Sarton More Quotes by May Sarton More Quotes From May Sarton The fact is that I have lived with the belief that power, any kind of power, was the one thing forbidden to poets. ... Power requires that the inner person never be unmasked. No, we poets have to go naked. And since this is so, it is better that we stay private people; a naked public person would be rather ridiculous, what? May Sarton naked would-be people I think that passion if really intense is always destructive if not to the two involved, always to other people. May Sarton passion two thinking a poet never feels useful. May Sarton poet feels we are never done with thinking about our parents, I suppose, and come to know them better long after they are dead than we ever did when they were alive. May Sarton parent long thinking Poems like to have a destination for their flight. They are homing pigeons. May Sarton pigeons flight destination poetry is first of all a way of life and only secondarily a way of writing. May Sarton writing way firsts One could go on revising a prose page forever whereas there is a point in a poem when one knows it is done forever. May Sarton done goes-on forever And I refuse to feel guilty about not letter-writing either. There are times when one can, times when one can't. In the times when an enormous amount of living is going on, one can't. May Sarton guilty letters writing instant intimacy was too often followed by disillusion. May Sarton disillusion instant intimacy One of the springs of poetry is joy. May Sarton poetry-is spring joy Poetry is a dangerous profession between conflict and resolution, between feeling and thought, between becoming and being, between the ultra-personal and the universal - and these balances are shifting all the time. May Sarton shifting balance feelings Poetry finds its perilous equilibrium somewhere between music and speech. May Sarton equilibrium speech The body is a universe in itself and must be held as sacred as anything in creation....It is dangerous to forget the body as sacramental. May Sarton sacred body forget In the country of pain we are each alone. May Sarton pain country A body without bones would be a limp impossible mess, so a day without steady routine would be disruptive and chaotic. May Sarton routine body would-be What is there to do when people die - people so dear and rare - but bring them back by remembering? May Sarton healing grieving people I asked myself the question, 'What do you want of your life?' and I realized with a start of recognition and terror, 'Exactly what I have - but to be commensurate, to handle it all better. May Sarton recognition terror want It is the place of renewal and of safety, where for a little while there will be no harm or attack and, while every sense is nourished, the soul rests. May Sarton safety soul littles The garden is growth and change and that means loss as well as constant new treasures to make up for a few disasters. May Sarton nature loss mean I loved them all the way one loves at any age -- if it's real at all -- obsessively, painfully, with wild exultation, with guilt, with conflict; I wrote poems to and about them, I put them into novels (disguised of course); I brooded upon why they were as they were, so often maddening don't you know? I wrote them ridiculous letters. I lived with their faces. I knew their every gesture by heart. I stalked them like wild animals. I studied them as if they were maps of the world -- and in a way I suppose they were. May Sarton real heart animal
