Anne Stevenson

Mind led body to the edge of the precipice. They stared in desire at the naked abyss. If you love me, said mind, take that step into silence. If you love me, said body, turn and exist. ↗

— Anne Stevenson

#poetry #suicide #survival #love

Yes, I do often write poems from the mind, but I hope I don't ignore feelings and emotions. ↗

— Anne Stevenson

#feelings #hope #i #i do #ignore

A poem might be defined as thinking about feelings - about human feelings and frailties. ↗

— Anne Stevenson

#about #defined #feelings #frailties #human

Blake has always been a favorite, the lyrics, not so much the prophetic books, but I suppose Yeats influenced me more as a young poet, and the American, Robert Frost. ↗

— Anne Stevenson

#american #been #blake #books #favorite

Each word bears its weight, so you have to read my poems quite slowly. ↗

— Anne Stevenson

#bears #each #poems #quite #read

I am now seventy, rather glad, really, that I won't live to see the horrors to come in the 21st century. ↗

— Anne Stevenson

#am #century #come #glad #horrors

I did know Ted Hughes and I partly wrote the book to explain to myself and others the complexities of a marriage that was for six years wonderfully productive of poetry and then ended in tragedy. ↗

— Anne Stevenson

#complexities #did #ended #explain #hughes

I dislike literary jargon and never use it. Criticism has only one function and that is to help readers read and understand literature. It is not a science, it is an aid to art. ↗

— Anne Stevenson

#art #criticism #dislike #function #help

I don't like poetry that just slaps violent words on a canvas, as it were. ↗

— Anne Stevenson

#i #just #like #poetry #slaps

I have always made my own rules, in poetry as in life - though I have tried of late to cooperate more with my family. I do, however, believe that without order or pattern poetry is useless. ↗

— Anne Stevenson

#believe #cooperate #family #however #i