Quotes from Elizabeth Jennings

For me, poetry is always a search for order.

Insects move and men like insects. WhyAre we set here, frightened of our reflections,Living in fear yet desperate not to die?

It is the dark, the dark that draws me backInto a chaos whereVocations, visions fail, the will grows slackAnd I am stunned by silence everywhere.

For me, poetry is always a search for order.

Since clarity suggests simplicityAnd since the simple thing is here inapt,I choose obscurities of tongue and touch,The shadow side of language and the darkHinted in conversations close to quarrel,Conceived within the mind in aftermaths.

Time does not heal, It makes a half-stiched scar That can be broken and again you feel Grief as total as in its first hour

Love which cries out, And wants the world to understand, Is love that holds itself in doubt. For love is quiet, and love is kind.

Be silent now and do not tell your magic.

I hate a word like 'pets': it sounds so much Like something with no living of its own.