Quotes from Henri Cole

In truth, I'm still slightly embarrassed to say, I am a poet. I'd rather say, I make poems.

There's no animal that sleep-deprives itself like the human.

I'm standing in the lake, forming a whirlpool with my arms, letting the force of atonement pull me into its center until I cannot any longer hang onto my observations or any sense of myself, like dust and hydrogen clouds getting all excited white creating new stars to light the backyard. How poignantly emptiness cries out to be filled.

Proximity to this death makes me nostalgic for the French language.

Introducing the idea of beauty as a salve and of aesthetics making something difficult accessible.

You see, my mind takes me far, but my heart dreams of return.

Words and phrases grew only slowly

I feel like a jug in which wine is poured until it overflows.

We all came from our mothers' bellies. We all have hope in our veins. We don't want history to forget us, but the dead look after the afterwards.

My soft voice and demeanor were useless. In a pint jar, I carried a cremated friend, like flesh scraped from a cistern.

the art of life, mostly, the art of avoiding pain

Experience seems to come from a distance.