Quotes from Muriel Rukeyser

In our time, they say there is no penalty for writing poems. They say this. This is the penalty.

The man in the white coat is the man on the hill, the man with the clean hands is the man with the drill, the man who answers "yes" lies still.

We hear the saints saying: Our brother the world. We hear the revolutionaries: Dare we win?

Lying in the grass girl and boy Eating oranges, exchanging kisses like waves exchanging whiteness. Lying on the beach girl and boy. Eating apples, exchanging kisses like clouds exchanging whiteness. Lying underground girl and boy. Saying nothing, never kissing exchanging silence for silence.

This is the dark. Lights strung up all the way. Depression; and driven deeper in, by hunger, pistols, and despair, they took the tunnel.

Whatever has happened, whatever is going to happen in the world, it is the living moment that contains the sum of the excitement, this moment in which we touch life and all the energy of the past and future.