Those of us who make up poems have agreed not to say what the pain is. Robert Bly More Quotes by Robert Bly More Quotes From Robert Bly If a man, cautious, Robert Bly wallcarmen Rumi is astounding, fertile, abundant, almost more an excitable library of poetry than a person. Robert Bly fertilelibrarypersons The lead either forges an instant connection with the reader, or the package fails. Robert Bly connectionsfailingreader I have daughters and I have sons./When one of them lays a hand/On my shoulder, shining fish/Turn suddenly in the deep sea. Robert Bly daughterhandsson The deeper question... is not whether ancient religious forms can reform... but whether new forms of nature-related spirituality might emerge. Robert Bly reformreligiousreligion To me, the hope lies in adults forgetting about their retirement and turning toward the adolescents and helping pull the adolescents over that mysterious line drawn on the ground into adulthood. If we don't do that, the adolescents are going to stay exactly where they are for the next 30 or 40 years. Robert Bly retirementlyingyears The Roman Catholic Church early on simply adapted the hierarchical structure of the Roman Empire and confused the whole thing. Vertical attention and hierarchy were so entangled, that when the French killed the king during the Revolution, they lost much of their vertical attention too. Robert Bly confusedcatholickings A lazy part of us is like a tumbleweed. It doesn’t move on its own. Sometimes it takes A lot of Depression to get tumbleweeds moving. Robert Bly tumbleweedslazymoving The best presenters have conversations with their audiences. Robert Bly audiencebusinessconversation I think that poetry is important when you are shipwrecked, when the ordinary structures that hold you up are gone. Robert Bly importantordinarythinking In the society that has replaced the paternalistic society, women are able to develop their independent and social energies much more. That is good. Robert Bly independentableenergy Before I was a parent I was struck by Rilke, who, as you know, didn't go to his daughter's wedding because he was writing a poem that day. That was the ideal for artistic behavior in 1950. That's the way I wanted to live. Robert Bly daughterparentwriting All of Japan once a year will get up on their rooftops, because that's the night that the shepherd boy from one side of the Milky Way gets to meet the weaver girl on the other side of the Milky Way. They all get up on their roofs and watch that night. So they long for 365 days and then on the 365th night, they see the result of that longing. Robert Bly girlnightboys 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 halfwritingfather Adulthood has something to do with not choosing any of the pure points of view, but living about half of what you really want to live. Robert Bly halfviewswant I have spent many years trying to recover a common language, one that can cross the distance between people. Robert Bly distancepeopleyears Vertical attention is not the same as, and doesn't evolve from nor imply, hierarchy. We could say that hierarchy is associated with power, and vertical attention with longing for the Divine Feminine, for the Divine Masculine, for what the Sufis call 'wine.' Robert Bly divine-femininewineattention Siblings tend not to care much about boundaries and borders. Having worn each others' T-shirts, it's unlikely that they'd go to war over a border. Robert Bly siblingcarewar During the patriarchal time, the men were always and invariably dominant, legally and socially in marriage, so now it's possible to remodel the entire house of marriage, put in new footings and new joists and a new sort of interior. That is exactly what some men and women are now doing. Robert Bly he-manhousemen The dead made this world. We didn't make it. They made the poetry and the songs and the customs. Robert Bly madesongworld
