Kelli Russell Agodon

“Like the kite that caught up to the sky,painted with clouds, I lost track of it, but it was connected by string, something I was holding, something I could always bring back.”

“To suffer together is to suffer with beauty,”

“Yes, it hurts to fall— ache, tenderness—but each scar is a sign your system is working.”

“in the corner of the painting of successthe signature is blurred”

“I escape disaster by writing a poem with a joke in it:The past, present, and future walk into a bar—it was tense.”

“As I go under, I wonder if there’s a reason for art?”

“I wonder if I might be lonelierif I didn't have loneliness”

“Maybe if I could slip into Sylvia's mind, sort out the spices in her rack, alphabetize them and dust them off. Maybe then I'd understand how it's the little things that pull you under.”

“the moon is just another kind of clock”

“and everyone wants to read the poem we’re afraid to write.”

“For everyone who never smiled in school photos, for all who’ve wandered city streetsnot knowing the where they were or feeling alone, I’ve packed kindness.”

“She pours sugar on her life and drinks the artist’s marrow in the bone of her glass and she lives.”

“...look up and see the madnessorganized in the stars.”

“I don’t believe we should carry backupplans in life’s suitcase—they’re too easy to unpack like living a life in yoga pants, so comfortable our hips spreadinto new timezones...”

“Maybe I’m still the mermaid. Maybe the ocean is your hand.”

“Sometimes darknessis the beauty I am made of—”

“A crowd of drunken lovers. Newspaper hats, new couples falling from couches and love- seats—the pleasure remembered, never the regret.”

“We must live with our hearts in our hands - like Mary.We must hold the blood-red heart and no be disappointedwhen others look away.”