“And the gentleness that comes, not from the absence of violence, but despite the abundance of it.” — Richard Siken Copy Share Image
Sometimes you get so close to someone you end up on the other side of them. — Richard Siken Copy Share Image
Tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us. These, our bodies, possessed by light. Tell me we'll never get… — Richard Siken Copy Share Image
“Someone once told me that explaining is an admission of failure. I'm sure you remember, I was on the phone with you,… — Richard Siken Failure Copy Share Image
“Tonight you’re thinking of cities under crowns of snow and I stare at you like I’m looking through a window, counting birds.” — Richard Siken Copy Share Image
From the landscape: a sense of scale. From the dead: a sense of scale. — Richard Siken Landscape Copy Share Image
I'm battling monsters, I'm pulling you out of the burning buildings/ and you say I'll give you anything but you never come… — Richard Siken Copy Share Image
“There is an empty space next to you in the backseat of the station wagon. Make it the shape of everything you… — Richard Siken Copy Share Image
“Do you want it? Do you want anything I have? Will you throw me to the ground like you mean it, reach… — Richard Siken Copy Share Image
“and this is the map of my heart, the landscape after cruelty which is, of course, a garden, which is a tenderness,… — Richard Siken Gardening Copy Share Image
I don't know where I end and the world begins. My best guess? Skin. It's the only actual boundary between the body… — Richard Siken Body Copy Share Image
“We pull our boots on with both hands but we can't punch ourselves awake and all I can do is stand on… — Richard Siken Crush Copy Share Image
“What can you know about a person? They shift in the light. You can’t light up all sides at once. Add a… — Richard Siken Darkness Copy Share Image
I woke up in the morning and I didn’t want anything, didn’t do anything, couldn’t do it anyway, just lay there listening… — Richard Siken Copy Share Image
We can do anything. It’s not because our hearts are large, they’re not, it’s what we struggle with. The attempt to say… — Richard Siken Friendship Copy Share Image
Is that too much to expect? That I would name the stars for you? That I would take you there? The splash… — Richard Siken Copy Share Image
You are playing cards with three Jeffs. One is your father, one is your brother, and the other is your current boyfriend.… — Richard Siken Copy Share Image
This is my favorite part. It starts and ends here. The pebbles shine, the plan worked, Hansel Triumphant. Lesson number one: be… — Richard Siken Aftermath Copy Share Image
You're trying not to tell him you love him, and you're trying to choke down the feeling, and you're trembling, but he… — Richard Siken Body Copy Share Image
“History repeats itself. Someone says this. History throws its shadow over beginning, over the desktop, over the sock drawer with its socks,… — Richard Siken History Copy Share Image
how we rolled up the carpet so we could dance, and the days were bright red, and every time we kissed there… — Richard Siken Copy Share Image
I never liked that ending either. More love streaming out the wrong way, and I don't want to be the kind that… — Richard Siken Copy Share Image
“He was not dead yet, not exactly— parts of him were dead already, certainly other parts were still only waiting for something… — Richard Siken Heart Copy Share Image
“We still groped for each other on the backstairs or in parked cars as the road around us grew glossy with ice… — Richard Siken Fast car Copy Share Image
“The way you slam your body into mine reminds me I’m alive, but monsters are always hungry, darling, and they’re only a… — Richard Siken Monsters Copy Share Image
“Give me bullet power. Give me power over angels. Even when you’re standing up you look like you’re lying down, but will… — Richard Siken Copy Share Image
“want to tell you this story without having to confess anything, without having to say that I ran out into the street… — Richard Siken Copy Share Image
“Tell me about the dream where we pull the bodies out of the lake and dress them in warm clothes again. How… — Richard Siken Dream Copy Share Image
“There’s smashed glass glittering everywhere like stars. It’s a Western, Henry. It’s a downright shoot-em-up. We’ve made a graveyard out of the… — Richard Siken Copy Share Image
“Every morning the maple leaves. Every morning another chapter where the hero shifts from one foot to the other. Every morning the… — Richard Siken Car crash Copy Share Image
“I wanted to hurt you but the victory is that I could not stomach it. We have swallowed him up, they said.… — richard siken Dream Copy Share Image
“The blond boy in the red trunks is holding your head underwater because he is trying to kill you, and you deserve… — Richard Siken Ready to die Copy Share Image
