By: Elizabeth BishopPhoto: Erik RittenberryText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedOh, but it is dirty! —this little filling station, oil-soaked, oil-permeated to a disturbing, over-all black translucency. Be careful with that match! Father wears a dirty, oil-soaked
By: Fernando PessoaArt: Henri PrestesMy soul is a hidden orchestra; I know not what instruments, what fiddlestrings and harps, drums and tambours I sound and clash inside myself. All I hear is the symphony. — PessoaOne day, when all knowledge ceases, the door beyond will open and everything that we
On solitude, self-creation, and the forgotten art of making a life entirely your ownArt: Cameron Gray“Whoever uses the spirit that is in him creatively is an artist.To make living itself an art, that is the goal.”― Henry Miller“The whole life of the individual is nothing but the process of giving bi
By: James Wright (1927-1980)caption...Go deeper. Become a paid subscriber. For the price of a coffee a month, you’ll unlock the full Poetic Outlaws experience.Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedI will grieve alone, As I strolled alone, years ago, down along The O
By: Erich FrommThere is a huge silence inside each of us that beckons us into itself, and the recovery of our own silence can begin to teach us the language of heaven.—Meister EckhartEckhart uses being in two different, though related, meanings. In a narrower, psychological sense, being denotes the
By: Ivan M. GrangerArt: Justin EstcourtIf Poetic Outlaws has become a welcome part of your reading life, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support does more than unlock additional essays, recommendations, and exclusive content—it makes this work possible.Mystics write poetry, u
By: Erik Rittenberry“So, friends, every day do something that won't compute...Give your approval to all you cannot understand...Ask the questions that have no answers. Put your faith in two inches of humus that will build under the trees every thousand years...Laugh. Be joyful though you have consid
All creative art is magic, is evocation of the unseen in forms persuasive, enlightening, familiar and surprising, for the edification of mankind, pinned down by the conditions of its existence to the earnest consideration of the most insignificant tides of reality.Action in its essence, the creative
By: Ramon ElaniArt: Steve CuttsThe moment rapidly approaches where civilization declines with each new comfort. —Nicolás Gómez DávilaMontaigne, after a busy life, full of activity, had decided to retire to his estate and allow idleness to overtake him in preparation for death. He found, however, tha
By: Henry MillerThe great ones do not set up offices, charge fees, give lectures, or write books. Wisdom is silent, and the most effective propaganda for truth is the force of personal example. The great ones attract disciples, lesser figures whose mission is to preach and to teach. These are gospel
By: Pablo NerudaText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedAnd it was at that age… Poetry arrived in search of me. I don’t know, I don’t know where it came from, from winter or a river. I don’t know how or when, no they were not voices, they were not words, nor silence,
By: Emil Cioran“Cut off from every root, unfit, moreover, to mix with dust or mud, we have achieved the feat of breaking not only with the depths of things, but with their very surface. Civilization, at this stage, would seem to be a bargain with the Devil, if man still had a soul to sell.”— Emil Ci
By: A.D. WinansText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedI see her two three times a week sitting on the balcony when weather permits here in old Italy town in what is left of North Beach her robe slightly parted thumbing through the pages of a book taking no notice of
By: D.H. LawrencePhoto: Gabriel Guerrero Caroca"They never live. They are like the sheep in the fields, that have their noses to the ground, and anticipate only the thrill of increase."-- D.H. LawrencePetty little personal salvation, petty morality instead of cosmic splendour, we have lost the sun a
By: Gregory CorsoText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedOn the steps of the bright madhouse I hear the bearded bell shaking down the woodlawn the final knell of my world I climb and enter a fiery gathering of knights they unaware of my presence lay forth sheepskin pl
What matters, is to connect your own voice within an infinite range of verbal cadences & sequences — and only endless actual experience of your ear can store all that is in your nervous system. The rest can be left to your life & your character.— Ted HughesBecause it is occasionally possible, just f
By: Julia VinogradPhotographer: Richard MisrachText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedI have seen screams deserted by their owners, wandering the streets looking for a way home, any home. I have seen torn off masks with parts of faces still twitching inside them. I h
The higher aims of “technological progress” are money and ease. And this exalted greed for money and ease is disguised and justified by an obscure, cultish faith in “the future.” — Wendell BerryThe various reductions I have been describing are fairly directly the results of the ongoing revolution of
By: Charles BukowskiText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedI believe that I love sleep much more than anybody I’ve ever met. I have the ability to sleep for 2 or 3 days and nights. I will go to bed at any given moment. I often confused my girlfriends this way— say it
By: Italo Calvino“What harbor can receive you more securely than a great library?”― Italo CalvinoIn the shop window you have promptly identified the cover with the title you were looking for. Read more
