Quotes from Brian Patten

When in public poetry should take off its clothes and wave to the nearest person in sight; it should be seen in the company of thieves and lovers rather than that of journalists and publishers.

On sighting mathematicians poetry should unhook the algebra from their minds and replace it with poetry; on sighting poets it should unhook poetry from their minds and replace it with algebra.

The Giant rested back in his chair. "You've some stories left," he said. " I can smell them on your skin.

Dreams larger than ourselves we killed, not wanting our smallness measured against them." (poem: Having Taken the Necessary Precautions)

So many partings in the mind the heart Has not had the courage to follow through.

I reach into you to reach all mankind, And the deeper into you I reach The deeper glows elsewhere the world And sings of you. It says, To love is the one common miracle.

And I began to understand How there is nothing complicated in this world That is not of my own making,

A man lives for as long as we carry him inside us

Sleep now, Alone in the sleeves of grief, Listening to clothes falling And your flesh touching God;

scents gossip of previous winters.

How long is a man's life, finally? Is it a thousand days, or only one? One week, or a few centuries? How long does a man's death last? And what do we mean when we say, 'gone forever'?

When being lost seems So much more like being found, And you find all that is lost Is what weighed you down.

Isolation disfigures men Who think their separateness superior.

And also it happens that there is nowhere to go and then There is somewhere to go, Then you have bypassed. And the years flare up and are gone, Quicker than a minute.

Afraid perhaps to come to where I've stopped in case you find into some slow and glowing countryside yourself escaping

And you, mother, stood behind me, impatient to be going, old at twenty-three, alone, thin overcoat flapping.

It is the same old story. Night owns the copyright

Death is the only grammatically correct full stop.