[kennyc]

I've been reading poetry today and came across a couple for lines that particularly struck me and thought it might be interesting to start a thread of lines (opening lines, selected lines, or quotes) from any reading you might be doing along with references of course so that anyone interested can look them up and read for themselves.

If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.
- Emily Dickinson


I'll share the two that struck me today:

From A Village Life by Louise Gluck - "Slip of Paper"

....
To get born, your body makes a pact with death,
and from that moment, all it tries to do is cheat--
...


And
From Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty by Tony Hoagland -- "Powers"

....
What are we but monkeys who learned to drive cars,
who have the freedom to read or not to read
Proust?
.....