Favorite Lines

My poems often start with a few lines stuck in my head. Inevitably, these end up being the best lines of the poem, and most of my writing effort is spent trying to make the rest of the piece live up to them. Consequently, I don't think most of my whole poems are all that great, but I do love some of the lines I've written. I also tend to love bits and pieces of poems by others even more than the whole poem itself. There's something about the perfect word choice that is like music.

Here are some of my favorite lines, first that I've written, and second, much better ones, from the greats.

delusion: we believe our mouths only speak
forgotten: the feast of the senses,
the unwitting articulation of the body
--from "Walking Poems"

the first leap of body within body,
of soul within body,
akin to the breath of Adam
filling a lung that conducted
the first clay heart to beat into flesh,
when divine breath bore spirit out of dust.
--from "The Quickening"

i am the dust speck
in this oyster of a universe
and it means that someday i will dwell
in the heart of the great luminous pearl
of redemption
--from "Some Nights I Am Glad"

If only they were right.
If only, by effort, we could leave nothing undone.
For example, if I told you your love
was at the end of this road
how fast would you run?
--from "Single Young Adult"

I pretend not to be the sweet
collateral damage of your magic,
to not have fallen in love accidentally,
on the sidelines.
--from "Let Me Love Your Songs"

You’re the blood that runs through the veins of my daydreams
The flesh that cleaves to the whispers of my childhood heart
--from "Incarnation"

go ahead, be a little reckless
better to be breathless from speaking the truth,
relentlessly kind, better than flying blind
through the great blue sky of your heart
--from "Go Ahead"

everything you could mean
is the falsetto note
that turns my heart
into a ringing well.
--from "Dancing Around You"

In the lamplight, your chords
would be deep wells of quiet.

And in the evening
you could sing me home.
--from "A Secret"

It's late...lines from others coming soon!