Able Quote by Yusef Komunyakaa

“I like connecting the abstract to the concrete. There's a tension in that. I believe the reader or listener should be able to enter the poem as a participant. So I try to get past resolving poems.” quote by Yusef Komunyakaa — Download Open image

“I like connecting the abstract to the concrete. There's a tension in that. I believe the reader or listener should be able to enter the poem as a participant. So I try to get past resolving poems.”

Yusef Komunyakaa

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Able Abstract Believe Books Concrete Connecting I believe Past Poetry Reader Should Tension Trying

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“Title: Blue Light Lounge Sutra For The Performance Poets At Harold Park Hotel the need gotta be so deep words can't answer simple questions…

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“Foolhearted mindreader, help us see how the heart begs, how fangs of opprobrium possess our eyes.”

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Whoever said men hit harder when women are around, is right. Word for word, we beat the love out of each other.

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I think of language as our first music.

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I think of my poems as personal and public at the same time. You could say they serve as psychological overlays. One fits on…

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“In the old days, the general's ribbons / & medals rainbowed across his chest, / & if he were interrogating himself, / by now,…

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Blue is the insides of something mysterious and lonely. I'd look at fish and birds, thinking the sky and water colored them. The first…

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“The Way the Cards Fall " Why did you stay away so long? I’ve buried another husband, since I last saw you holding to…

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Vietnam helped me to look at the horror and terror in the hearts of people and realize how we can't aim guns and set…

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It wasn't a deliberate decision to become a poet. It was something I found myself doing - and loving. Language became an addiction.

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Explore all 39 Yusef Komunyakaa quotes

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