Why does my muse only speak when she is uhnhappy? She does not, I only listen when I am unhappy. Stevie Smith More Quotes by Stevie Smith More Quotes From Stevie Smith But one wants the idea of Death, you know, as something large and unknowable, something that allows a person to stretch himself out. Especially one wants it if one is tired. Or perhaps what one wants is simply a release from sensation, from all consciousness for ever. Stevie Smith tired want ideas You must have some money if you are going to live simply. It need not be much, but you must have some. Stevie Smith live-simply ifs needs I may be smelly and I may be old, Rough in my pebbles, reedy in my pools, But where my fish float by I bless their swimming, And I like the people to bathe in me especially women. Stevie Smith fish-tanks swimming people Nothing is more wistful than the scent of lilac, nor more robust than its woody stalk, for we must remember that it is a tree as well as a flower, we must try not to forget this. Stevie Smith flower tree trying There can be no good art that is international. Art to be vigorous and gesund must use the material at hand. Stevie Smith use hands art See the cat at love, rolling with its sweetheart, up and over, with shriek and moan. But if a person comes by, they break away, sit separate upon a fence washing their faces - and might never have met at all. Stevie Smith rolling cat might This is the simplest of all thoughts, that Death must come when we call, although he is a god. Stevie Smith simplest I like to see cats in movement. A galloping cat is a fine sight. See it cross the road in a streak, cursed by the drivers of motor cars and buses, dodging the butcher's bicycle, coming safe to the kerb and bellying under its home gate. Stevie Smith cat sight home Colours are what drive me most strongly. Stevie Smith colour I like food, I like stripping vegetables of their skins, I like to have a slim young parsnip under my knife. Stevie Smith knives vegetables food I love Death because he breaks the human pattern and frees us from pleasures too prolonged as well as from the pains of this world. It is pleasant, too, to remember that Death lies in our hands; he must come if we call him. ... I think if there were no death, life would be more than flesh and blood could bear. Stevie Smith pain lying thinking The world is come upon me, I used to keep it a long way off, But now I have been run over and I am in the hands of the hospital staff. Stevie Smith running long hands Truth is far and flat, and fancy is fiery; and truth is cold, and people feel the cold, and they may wrap themselves against it in fancies that are fiery, but they should not call them facts; and, generally, poets do not; they are shrewd, they feel the cold, too, but they know a hawk from a handsaw, a fact from a fancy, as none knows better. Stevie Smith fancy may people I love people, but I love the thought and memory of them just as much. Stevie Smith memories people Youth is an arithmetical statement of passing interest, each hour eats it up. Stevie Smith passing hours youth all tamed animals are nervous, we have given them reason to be, not only by cruelty but by our love too, that presses upon them. They have not been able to be entirely indifferent to this and untouched by it. Stevie Smith our-love able animal My heart was full of softening showers, I used to swing like this for hours, I did not care for war or death, I was glad to draw my breath. Stevie Smith swings heart war Christianity in the suburb is cheerful. The church is a centre of social activity and those who go to church need never be lonely. Stevie Smith church lonely christian Love is not love that wounded bleeds And bleeding sullies slow. Come death within my hands and I Unto my love will go. Stevie Smith bleeding love-is hands If I lie down on my bed I must be here, Stevie Smith bed may lying
