Jane Kenyon Quotes & Sayings

Otherwise I got out of bed on two strong legs. It might have been otherwise. I ate cereal, sweet milk, ripe, flawless peach. It might have been otherwise. I took the dog uphill to the birch wood. All morning I did the work I love. At noon I lay down with my mate. It might have been otherwise. We ate dinner together at a table with silver candlesticks. It might have been otherwise. I slept in a bed in a room with paintings on the walls, and planned another day just like this day. But one day, I know, it will be otherwise. — Jane Kenyon

My ear is not working, my poetry ear. I can't write a line that doesn't sound like pots and pans falling out of the cupboard. — Jane Kenyon

I am the one whose love
overcomes you, already with you
when you think to call my name. — Jane Kenyon

Here
You always belonged here.
You were theirs, certain as a rock.
I'm the one who worries
if I fit in with the furniture
and the landscape.
But I "follow too much
the devices and desires of my own heart."
Already the curves in the road
are familiar to me, and the mountain
in all kinds of light,
treating all people the same.
and when I come over the hill,
I see the house, with its generous
and firm proportions, smoke
rising gaily from the chimney.
I feel my life start up again,
like a cutting when it grows
the first pale and tentative
root hair in a glass of water. — Jane Kenyon

The soul's bliss and suffering are bound together. — Jane Kenyon

A poet's job is to find a name for everything: to be a fearless finder of the names of things. — Jane Kenyon

The poet's job is to put into words those feelings we all have that are so deep, so important, and yet so difficult to name, to tell the truth in such a beautiful way, that people cannot live without it. — Jane Kenyon

If you want a different life, you gotta start doing and learning different things. — Jane Kenyon

All day the blanket snapped and swelled
on the line, roused by a hot spring wind ...
From there it witnessed the first sparrow,
early flies lifting their sticky feet,
and a green haze on the south-sloping hills.
Clouds rose over the mountain ... At dusk
I took the blanket in, and we slept,
restless, under its fragrant weight. — Jane Kenyon

There's just no accounting for happiness, or the way it turns up like a prodigal who comes back to the dust at your feet having squandered a fortune far away. — Jane Kenyon

Be a good steward of your gifts. Protect your time. Feed your inner life. Avoid too much noise. Read good books, have good sentences in your ears. Be by yourself as often as you can. Walk. Take the phone off the hook. Work regular hours. — Jane Kenyon

If it's darkness we're having, let it be extravagant. — Jane Kenyon

Everyone longs for love's tense joys and red delights. — Jane Kenyon

I divested myself of despair and fear when I came here. Now there is no more catching one's own eye in the mirror, there are no bad books, no plastic, no insurance premiums, and of cours eno illness. Contrition does not exist, nor gnashing of teeth. No one howls as the first clod of earth hits the casket. The poor we no longer have with us. Our calm hearts strike only the hour, and God, as promised, proves to be mercy clothed in light. — Jane Kenyon

Let it come, as it will, and don't be afraid. God does not leave us comfortless, so let evening come. — Jane Kenyon