Sarah Kay Quotes & Sayings

I have always thought of poetry as an act of celebration. Just by nature of writing a poem you are taking the time to dwell on whatever it is that you're writing about ... you can be celebrating anger, you can be celebrating sorrow ... you are spending the time to focus and observe and try to understand the various parts of being human. — Sarah Kay

My self-confidence can be measured out in teaspoons mixed into my poetry, and it still always tastes funny in my mouth. — Sarah Kay

I promise to tidy up before company arrives, wouldn't want my socks and daydreams all over the carpet — Sarah Kay

Spoken word teaches that if you have the ability to express yourself and the courage to present those stories and opinions, you could be rewarded with a room full of your peers or your community who will listen. — Sarah Kay

I have seen the best of you, and the worst of you, and I choose both. — Sarah Kay

You're just smelling for smoke
so you can follow the trail
back to a burning house,
so you can find the boy
who lost everything in the fire
to see if you can save him.
Or else
find the boy
who lit the fire
in the first place,
to see if you
can change him. — Sarah Kay

At this point in my life - age 24 - I have chosen a fairly strange path that not many are walking. I am a professional spoken word poet who tours the world performing and teaching. I run an organization called Project VOICE dedicated to using this art form as an education and empowerment tool in schools and communities of all kinds. — Sarah Kay

Maybe Love stays.
Maybe Love can't.
Maybe Love shouldn't.
Love arrives exactly when Love is supposed to and Love leaves exactly when Love must.
When Love arrives, say, "Welcome. Make yourself comfortable."
If Love leaves, ask her to leave the door open behind her.
Turn off the music. Listen to the quiet.
Whisper, "Thank you for stopping by. — Sarah Kay

When I hear what I have written out loud, the cliches hang in the air between us like bad breath — Sarah Kay

Perusing colorful storylines on the backs of book jackets, I realized that none of them could possibly be as dramatic as my life to date. Then sadly, I also realized I could never find the ending of my story from the safety of an armchair. — Sarah Kay

Because there's nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it's sent away. — Sarah Kay

When words become a poem, it makes sense to me, but I don't know how to explain to someone why the words are the way they are. It's just the logic of the poem to me. — Sarah Kay

Hands learn. More than minds do. — Sarah Kay

Thinking about writing as an act of celebration is sometimes a helpful framework for me. It allows me to prioritize what I want to call attention to and what I want others to know about me. It makes me ask: What is worth celebrating? — Sarah Kay

And I know we live in different worlds, and we're always really busy, but in my dreams you spin around me so fast, I always wake up dizzy.

So maybe one day you'll grow tired of the road and roll on back to me. — Sarah Kay

A sky still fits the ignition. There just isn't anything left to drive. — Sarah Kay

Ever hear that expression, "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times"? That's what high school was like for me. Both of those - all the time. — Sarah Kay

I write about love and family a lot, because I'm always trying to figure those things out. At different points in my life, just when I think I've finished writing about it, the dynamics shift, and then I have a whole new set of questions and worries and misunderstandings to wrestle with. — Sarah Kay

I love you
as much as the ocean
kisses the shore
no matter how many times
it is sent away. — Sarah Kay

Still now I send letters into space
Hoping that some mailman somewhere will track you down
And recognise you from the descriptions in my poems
That he will place the stack of them in your hands and tell you,
There is a girl who still writes you, she doesn't know how not to — Sarah Kay

We were dandelion seeds released to the wind, she asked for no return. We are saplings now. With gentle hands. — Sarah Kay

Life will hit you hard in the face, wait for you to get back up just so it can kick you in the stomach. But getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air. — Sarah Kay

No matter your wreckage. There will be someone to find you beautiful, despite the cruddy metal. Your ruin is not to be hidden behind paint and canvas. Let them see the cracks. Someone will come to sing into these empty spaces. — Sarah Kay

There are so many things I would tell you
if I thought that you would listen
and so many more you would tell me
if you believed I would understand — Sarah Kay

To me, having the courage to tell your own story goes hand in hand with having the curiosity and humility to listen to others' stories. — Sarah Kay

Ever since I was little, I've loved making hand-made cards and presents and arts & crafts for people. — Sarah Kay

My falling in love with spoken word poetry definitely came out of that time period where all the adults around me were failing to supply me with any answers. Everyone was too busy dealing with things that were more important. I was pretty lost and invisible. And all of a sudden, this world opened up where I could get on stage and perform in front of my peers. People would listen to me and see me, and people would say, "That thing you created was important." And that was so validating and necessary at that specific moment. — Sarah Kay

Because no matter how wide you stretch your fingers, your hands will always be too small to catch all the pain you want to heal. Believe me, I've tried. — Sarah Kay

I think you can perform any poem. But what I believe is that the best examples of spoken word poetry I've ever seen, are spoken word poems that, when you see them, you're aware of the fact they need to be performed. That there's something about that poem that you would not be able to understand if you were just reading it on a piece of paper. — Sarah Kay

How strange, that when you are away, I reach for my cell phone's buzz as if it were your hand. Each shiver in my pocket, a way to find you. — Sarah Kay

I want [my daughter] to look at the world through the underside of a glass-bottom boat, to look through a microscope at the galaxies that exist on the pinpoint of a human mind. — Sarah Kay

It is December, and nobody asked if I was ready. — Sarah Kay

Sometimes the only way I know how to work through something is by writing a poem. And sometimes I get to the end of the poem and look back and go, 'Oh, that's what this is all about,' and sometimes I get to the end of the poem and haven't solved anything, but at least I have a new poem out of it. — Sarah Kay

Such a little thing really, a kiss ... most people don't give it a moment's consideration. They kiss on meeting, they kiss on parting, that simple touching of flesh is taken entirely for granted as a basic human right. — Sarah Kay

It does not matter how strong your gravity is, we were always meant to fly. — Sarah Kay

Some people read palms to tell your future, but I read hands to tell your past. Each scar makes a story worth telling. Each callused palm, each cracked knuckle is a missed punch or years in a factory. — Sarah Kay

I often tell people to stop being afraid of writing bad poetry, or bad anything. I think that a lot of times, when people claim that they have writer's block, or that they get stuck, it's just because they're scared of writing bad things. — Sarah Kay

Poetry is like pooping. If there is a poem inside of you, it has to come out. Sometimes it can be really difficult and take longer than you'd like (it may even be painful), but other times it can be really easy and happen much faster than you expected. But either way - it is important, and it feels so much better when it's done. — Sarah Kay

Be careful, darling. Your footsteps land heavy here. Your racket will wake the dragons. — Sarah Kay

Forgive yourself for the decisions you have made, the ones you still call mistakes when you tuck them in at night — Sarah Kay

I am watching parts of me evaporate like sidewalk water. This wet grey, this nighttime dew, gone before morning. — Sarah Kay

I love hands like I love people. They are the maps and compasses with which we navigate our way through life, feeling our way over mountains passed and valleys crossed; they are our histories. — Sarah Kay

Sometimes I am puzzling over something for months and months and the poem gets created in small bursts and rewritten a hundred times, and chopped up and put back together, etc. Occasionally, though rarely, a poem just plops out of my head fully-formed. But always it is a blueprint of what my brain is trying to navigate at that moment. — Sarah Kay

When I hear other people's stories, I like to believe that they contribute to my 'Encyclopedia of Human Experience.' The stories I hear help me expand my definition of what love is, what pain feels like, what sacrifice means, what laughter can do. — Sarah Kay

Most days it feels as if the world is whirling around me and I am standing still. In slow motion, I watch the colors blur; people and faces all become a massive wash. — Sarah Kay

Spoken word poetry is the art of performance poetry. I tell people it involves creating poetry that doesn't just want to sit on paper, that something about it demands it be heard out loud or witnessed in person. — Sarah Kay

Our day-to-day lives are pretty chaotic. So in terms of the writing part, you have to get pretty disciplined about finding quiet moments and making sure you're making time for the art side, on top of all the time-consuming business side. — Sarah Kay

I write poems to figure things out — Sarah Kay

One of my highest priorities as an educator is to be as inclusive as possible. — Sarah Kay

Let the statues crumble. You have always been the place. — Sarah Kay

I don't think it's about art being a career but it's about making sure that if art is something that you love, something that brings you joy, it's about you having a duty to find time in your life for that thing that brings you joy ... even if it can only be a small amount. — Sarah Kay

Women don't have to be defined by others. We have the power to define ourselves: by telling our own stories, in our own words, with our own voices. — Sarah Kay

Poetry is like a puzzle-solving strategy for me. I like to poem my way through tricky questions and ideas. That's about the only consistent thread through my poem-creation process. — Sarah Kay

Not all poetry wants to be storytelling. And not all storytelling wants to be poetry. But great storytellers and great poets share something in common: They had something to say, and did. — Sarah Kay

If loving you means getting dirty, bring on the grime. — Sarah Kay

The first spoken word poem I ever wrote was when I was 14 and I wrote it because I was accidentally signed up for a teen poetry slam. Because I loved poetry I said that I'd try it out. — Sarah Kay

We build model ships in bottles, whispering life into the toothpicks and wire; we make plans and blueprints for the one we hope is coming. And come they do. Fleets of vessels. Battleships and barges. They arrive on the horizon, flags to the sky. — Sarah Kay

I have always been more comfortable with daredevil acts than with the everyday nuances of life. Let me jump out of a plane, speak in front of a roomful of strangers, even trek across Siberia. — Sarah Kay

I use poetry to help me work through what I don't understand, but I show up to each new poem with a backpack full of everywhere else that I've been. — Sarah Kay

When you fall in love, it is discovering the ocean after years of puddle jumping. — Sarah Kay

There are parts of me I only recognize from photographs. — Sarah Kay

You are a woman. Skin and bones, veins and nerves, hair and sweat. You are not made of metaphors. Not apologies, not excuses. — Sarah Kay

You can be an artist, work hard for your work and also share while trying to create community with other artists. — Sarah Kay

She makes tea by hand. Nettles, slippery elm, turmeric, cinnamon - my mother is a recipe for warm throats and belly laughs. Once she fell off a ladder when I was three. She says all she was worried about was my face as I watched her fall. — Sarah Kay

I write poetry to figure things out. Any time I'm trying to wrap my head around something, poetry is like a puzzle-solving strategy for me. — Sarah Kay

In New York, when a tree dies, nobody mourns that it was cut down in its prime. Nobody counts the rings, notifies the loved ones. There are other trees. We can always squeeze in one more. Mind the tourists. It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't wanna live there. — Sarah Kay

I want to welcome folks to poetry, especially those who may have previously felt unwelcome; I want to celebrate everyone who is trying to make sense of this world through poetry the way I try to. — Sarah Kay

Because rain will wash away everything, if you let it. — Sarah Kay

Nothing is as universal as some good scatalogical humor. Even if it means having to be a little silly or cheeky, I think it is worth it. — Sarah Kay

Hands learn more than minds do, hands learn how to hold other hands ... — Sarah Kay

I don't think I ever had a morning where I woke up and said I'm going to be a professional poet. I know I've always loved poetry, I've always loved writing poetry and I've always loved sharing poetry. I've also always known that I wanted that to somehow be a very large part of my life and I'm very fortunate that it's such a large part of my life. — Sarah Kay

Artistry is important. Skill, hard work, rewriting, editing, and careful, careful craft: All of these are necessary. These are what separate the beginners from experienced artists. — Sarah Kay

My world was the size of a crayon box, and it took every colour to draw her — Sarah Kay

But I have seen the best of you and the worst of you, and I choose both. I want to share every single one of your sunshines and save them for later. I will tuck them into my pockets so I can give them back to you when the rain falls hard. Friend, I want to be the mirror that reminds you to love yourself. I want to be the air in your lungs that reminds you to breath. When the walls come down, when the thunder rumbles, when nobody else is home, hold my hand, and I promise I won't let go. — Sarah Kay

I will love you with too many commas, but never any asterisks. — Sarah Kay

I have always liked coming home and sharing what has happened that day with my loved ones. I like comparing notes. I know other people do, too. I think there is a human instinct to tell stories, no matter who you are or where you live. — Sarah Kay

My first spoken word poem, packed with all the wisdom of a 14-year-old, was about the injustice of being seen as unfeminine. The poem was very indignant, and mainly exaggerated, but the only spoken word poetry that I had seen up until that point was mainly indignant, so I thought that that's what was expected of me. — Sarah Kay

Poetry makes people nervous. Especially in schools. — Sarah Kay

It is equally important to listen as it is to speak. — Sarah Kay

I do like celebrating women, I do like celebrating different lifestyles and choices and people and it makes me happy when others find my work empowering. — Sarah Kay

Fingers interlocked like a beautiful accordion of flesh or a zipper of prayer — Sarah Kay

It's really hard for me to remember all of the places that I've been but I can remember all of the delicious meals that I've ever eaten. I love traveling by way or stomach ... and finding quiet time. — Sarah Kay

You can only fit so many words in a postcard, only so many in a phone call, only so many into space before you forget that words are sometimes used for things other than filling emptiness. — Sarah Kay

Our model ships look perfect in their bottles, but we do not know if they are seaworthy. Sometimes the one that reaches your harbor has already been through the storm. — Sarah Kay

It is hard to stop loving the ocean. Even after it has left you gasping, salty. — Sarah Kay

They'll be days like this" my momma said.
When you open your hands to catch, and wind up with only blisters and bruises.
When you try to step out of the phone booth and try to fly , and the very people you want to save, are the ones standing on your cape.
When your boots will fill with rain, and you'll be up to your knees with disappointment
And those are the very days you have all the more reason to say "Thank you". — Sarah Kay

My first performance poem was about how sometimes I was teased for being manly, or a tomboy or whatever. It was saying how just because I looked a certain way and displayed myself a certain way didn't mean that I wasn't also a feminine human ... a woman if you will. — Sarah Kay

There was no secret I did not tell him, there was no moment we did not share. We didn't grow up, we grew in; like ivy wrapping, molding each other into perfect yins and yangs — Sarah Kay

Oh, Brother. No matter your wreckage. There will be someone to find you beautiful, despite the cruddy metal. Your ruin is not to be hidden behind paint and canvas. Let them see the cracks. — Sarah Kay

There is hurt here that cannot be fixed by band-aids or poetry. — Sarah Kay

Her dress is the colour of marmalade, she chirps songs that have no words — Sarah Kay

Part of what I try to do in schools is take poetry off of a pedestal and make it a little more accessible and approachable. — Sarah Kay

We both know how to hide our sharpest parts, I just don't always recognize my own weaponry. — Sarah Kay

I think that poetry is an act of celebration, that anytime you're writing a poem, it means that you're celebrating something, even if it's a sad poem, if it's an angry poem, a political poem or anything at all. The fact that you're taking the time and energy to pick up this thing and hold it to the light, and say, "Let's take some time to consider this," means that you've deemed it worthy enough to spend time on - which, in my opinion, is celebrating. — Sarah Kay

Some nights, I wake up knowing he is anxious. He is across the world in another woman's arms and the years have spread us like dandelion seeds, sanding down the edges of our jigsaw parts that used to only fit each other — Sarah Kay

For some reason there's this myth that creativity - [especially] in terms of creative writing - is a gift you either have, or you don't. So when people first start writing, if they write something that's not very good, or if they try and it's difficult, they go, "Oh, I guess I don't have it." That doesn't seem very fair, you have to try and you have to work at it. If we get scared of one bad poem and quit, that's not doing anybody any good. — Sarah Kay

Think it's so unfair when people think that you're not a "real artist" unless you're getting paid for it ... I personally know so many poets that work a 9 to 5 in a cubicle and come home and write poetry. Their poetry is just as powerful and moving as anything that I've ever written, if not more. — Sarah Kay

Is there a word for the moment you win tug-of-war? When the weight gives, and all that extra rope comes hurtling towards you, how even though you've won, you still end up with muddy knees and burns on your hands? Is there a word for that? I wish there was. — Sarah Kay

If he leaves you with a car alarm heart, you learn to sing along. — Sarah Kay

I don't remember the first poem that I wrote because I've been creating poems since I was around 2 or 3. I don't have any memory of that but my mom has written evidence of it. I've always liked playing with words so when I was younger it had a lot more to do with rhyme and sounds. — Sarah Kay