I can't imagine ever writing anything of any kind on a machine. I never tried to write either poetry or prose on a typewriter. I like to do it on useless paper, scrap paper, because it's of no importance.
W. S. MerwinRead
Through all of youth I was looking for you_x000D_ without knowing what I was looking for_x000D_ part memory part distance remaining _x000D_ mine in the ways that I learn to miss you_x000D_ from what we cannot hold the stars are made.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the longing and searching for a deep connection, suggesting that love is intertwined with memory and experience.
W. S. Merwin's quote captures the essence of a search for love and connection throughout one's youth, where the speaker acknowledges their longing without fully understanding it. The words illustrate how memories and the feelings of absence create a sense of yearning, implying that what we cannot possess often shapes our desires and aspirations, likening such emotions to the beauty of stars that emerge from the distances between us.
Themes
LoveLongingMemorySearchConnection
In practice
Example use cases
In a graduation speech about growing up and moving on to new phases in life.
More from W. S. Merwin
All quotes →I think there's a kind of desperate hope built into poetry that one really wants, hopelessly, to save the world. One is trying to say everything that can be said for the things that one loves while there's still time.
W. S. MerwinRead
The kind of writing that matters most to me is something you don't learn about. It's constantly coming out of what I don't know rather than what I do know.
W. S. MerwinRead
I say to my breath once again, little breath come from in front of me, go away behind me, row me quietly now, as far as you can, for I am an abyss that I am trying to cross.
W. S. MerwinRead
What I really believe is the only hopeful relation between our life and the whole of life is one of reverence and respect and of feeling at one with it. The other attitude which is the one our society is based on is devastating and it is killing the earth and it is killing us too.
W. S. MerwinRead
I go five steps in the garden, and I immediately lose track of time... it is a kind of joy in being alive in being in the world. I always found that in the garden. That is what it means to me.
W. S. MerwinRead
Similar quotes
She told her, while she kept it, 'Twould make her amiable and subdue my father Entirely to her love, but if she lost it Or made a gift of it, my father's eye Should hold her loathed and his spirits should hunt After new fancies.
William ShakespeareRead
They knew now that if there is one thing one can always yearn for, and sometimes attain, it is human love.
Albert CamusRead
I'll find you. Don't worry. Just be on your own and I'll find you.
Neil GaimanRead
She was in pain and I loved her, sort of loved her, I guess, so I kind of had to love her pain, too.
Sherman AlexieRead
And you? Now that I have discovered you? Beautiful, dangerous, unleashed. Still I try to hold you, knowing that your body is faced with knives.
Jeanette WintersonRead
When you are in the presence of unconditional love, that is the optimum environment for your heart to open, because you feel safe, because you realize nobody wants anything from you. The minute that heart opens, you are once again letting in the flow. And that flow is where you experience God.
Ram DassRead