I got about half the time I wanted to write poetry. I got about half the time I needed to be a father. So there is something in adulthood that has to do with accepting the half of things, allowing a renunciation of the other half, accepting half a basket instead of a full basket.

Robert Bly

Categorized in : Father Writing Half

To be wild is not to be crazy or psychotic. True wildness is a love of nature, a delight in silence, a voice free to say spontaneous things, and an exuberant curiosity in the face of the unknown.

voice crazy nature

... where a man's wound is, that is where his genius will be. by Robert Bly

... where a man's wound is, that is where his genius will be.

wounds genius men

The inner boy in a messed-up family may keep on being shamed, invaded, disappointed, and paralyzed for years and years. "I am a victim," he says, over and over; and he is. But that very identification with victimhood keeps the soul house open and available for still more invasions. Most American men today do not have enough awakened or living warriors inside to defend their soul houses. And most people, men or women, do not know what genuine outward or inward warriors would look like, or feel like.

warrior men boys

We did not come to remain whole. by Robert Bly

We did not come to remain whole.

being-alone whole tree

Every part of you that you do not love will regress and become ho... by Robert Bly

Every part of you that you do not love will regress and become hostile towards you.

hostile

The door to the soul is unlocked; you do not need to please the doorkeeper, the door in front of you is yours, intended for you, and the doorkeeper obeys when spoken to.

soul doors needs

In the sibling society, both the adult and the elder get lost, an... by Robert Bly

In the sibling society, both the adult and the elder get lost, and no one knows where they are.

sibling adults lost

We spend our life until we’re twenty deciding what parts of ourself to put into the bag, and we spend the rest of our lives trying to get them out again.

bags twenties trying

We are living at an important and fruitful moment now, for it is clear to men that the images of adult manhood given by the popular culture are worn out; a man can no longer depend on them. By the time a man is thirty-five he knows that the images of the right man, the tough man, the true man which he received in high school do not work in life.

men life school

My feeling is that poetry is also a healing process, and then when a person tries to write poetry with depth or beauty, he will find himself guided along paths which will heal him, and this is more important, actually, than any of the poetry he writes.

healing feelings writing

There are a lot of men who are healthier at age fifty then they have ever been before, because a lot of their fear is gone.

health fear men

What does it mean when a man falls in love with a radiant face across the room? It may mean that he has some soul work to do. His soul is the issue. Instead of pursuing the woman and trying to get her alone, away from her husband, he needs to go alone himself, perhaps to a mountain cabin, for three months, write poetry, canoe down a river, and dream. That would save some women a lot of trouble.

falling-in-love husband dream

As I've gotten older, I find I am able to be nourished more by sorrow and to distinguish it from depression.

sad able sorrow

Don't go outside your house to see flowers. My friend, don't bother with that excursion. Inside your body there are flowers. One flower has a thousand petals. That will do for a place to sit. Sitting there you will have a glimpse of beauty inside the body and out of it, before gardens and after gardens.

garden flower beauty

The body weeps the tears the eyes never shed. by Robert Bly

The body weeps the tears the eyes never shed.

body tears eye

We make the path by walking. by Robert Bly

We make the path by walking.

path walking

Grief is the doorway to a man's feelings. by Robert Bly

Grief is the doorway to a man's feelings.

grief feelings men

One out of three black men are in the criminal justice system in some form. Their despair is beginning to resonate through the entire culture; that is why suburban children want rap music.

rap men children

It’s all right if you grow your wings on the way down. by Robert Bly

It’s all right if you grow your wings on the way down.

grows wings way

Transcendence or detachment, leaving the body, pure love, lack of jealousy-that's the vision we are given in our culture, generally, when we think of the highest thing. . . . Another way to look at it is that the aim of the person is not to be detached, but to be more attached-to be attached to working; to be attached to making chairs or something that helps everyone; to be attached to beauty; to be attached to music.

leaving commitment thinking