The universe is made of stories, not of atoms. Muriel Rukeyser More Quotes by Muriel Rukeyser More Quotes From Muriel Rukeyser What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open. Muriel Rukeyser splits truth world The 'idea' for the poem, which may come as an image thrown against memory, as a sound of words that sets off a traveling of sound and meaning, as a curve of emotion (a form) plotted by certain crises of events or image or sound, or as a title which evokes a sense of inner relations; this is the first 'surfacing' of the poem. Then a period of stillness may follow. Muriel Rukeyser curves memories ideas As we live our truths, we will communicate across all barriers, speaking for the sources of peace. Peace that is not lack of war, but fierce and positive. Muriel Rukeyser fierce source war However confused the scene of our life appears, however torn we may be who now do face that scene, it can be faced, and we can go on to be whole. Muriel Rukeyser confused goes-on may If we look long enough and hard enough ... we will begin to see the connections that bind us together, and when we recognize those connections, we will begin to change the world. Muriel Rukeyser connections together long The journey is my home. Muriel Rukeyser journey home travel Reality is the completion of experience. Muriel Rukeyser completion reality I think there is a choice possible to us at any moment, as long as we live. But there is no sacrifice. There is a choice, and the rest falls away. Second choice does not exist. Beware of those who talk about sacrifice. Muriel Rukeyser sacrifice fall thinking American poetry has been part of a culture in conflict....We are a people tending toward democracy at the level of hope; at another level, the economy of the nation, the empire of business within the republic, both include in their basic premise the idea of perpetual warfare Muriel Rukeyser democracy people ideas If there were no poetry on any day in the world, poetry would be invented that day. For there would be an intolerable hunger. Muriel Rukeyser poetry would-be world Never to despise in myself what I have been taught Muriel Rukeyser despise taught tolerance My lifetime listens to yours. Muriel Rukeyser marriage lifetime love Breathe-in experience, breathe-out poetry. Muriel Rukeyser poetic breathe poetry I hear the singing of the lives of women. They clear mystery, the offering, and pride. Muriel Rukeyser singing pride offering No one wants to read poetry. You have to make it impossible for them to put the poem down--impossible for them to stop reading it, word after word. You have to keep them from closing the book. Muriel Rukeyser reading want book The sources of poetry are in the spirit seeking completeness. Muriel Rukeyser source poetry spirit Exchange is creation. Muriel Rukeyser creation Poetry is, above all, an approach to the truth of feeling. A fine poem will seize your imagination intellectually - that is, when you reach it, you will reach it intellectually too - but the way is through emotion, through what we call feeling. Muriel Rukeyser poetry imagination feelings Punctuation is biological. It is the physical indication of the body-rhythms which the reader is to acknowledge. Muriel Rukeyser punctuation language body The statement of ideas in a poem may have to do with logic. More profoundly, it may be identified with the emotional progression of the poem, in terms of the music and images, so that the poem is alive throughout. Another, more fundamental statement in poetry, is made through the images themselves those declarations, evocative, exact, and musical, which move through time and are the actions of a poem. Muriel Rukeyser emotional ideas moving
