32 Richard Siken Quotes From The Inspiring 'Crush' Poet

Why Richard Siken Quotes?

Richard Siken is a North-American painter, poet, and filmmaker well-known for his collection ‘Crush’. This series of poems got him to win the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition 2004. 'War Of The Foxes' is his second book of poetry which was released in 2015.

Siken's poems are a thought-provoking read for many. The poems especially resonate with those who have faced hardships in their life.

He received many awards for his hard work, and he respected it all by working harder and doing better in life. His poems to his quotes embody life, hardships, pain, acceptance, and the truth. Hence, everyone should read these Richard Siken quotes to get a glimpse of his writing style.

What Parents Should Know

• Richard Siken, through his work, found a way to express how our close ones, fighting through life, express their heart in words. He shows that just accepting it and being there to listen is enough for them.
• Richard Siken's writings carry not just meaning but lessons to remember the little things in life and cherish them while it grows.
• Richard Siken, just like life, accepts every little effort and understands its importance.

What to Discuss with Kids

• Richard Siken proves that just being there in times of need and listening is the greatest gift one can give to the pain bearer.
• Richard Siken is a positive personality who inspires through the poem small acts of kindness in people.
• Siken spreads the message of freedom and acceptance. He encourages people to believe and go forward and not look backward.

Richard Siken Quotes From ‘Crush’

1. “Tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us.

These, our bodies, possessed by light.

Tell me we'll never get used to it.” 

‒ ‘Crush’, ‘Scheherazade’

2. “A man takes his sadness and throws it away

but then he’s still left with his hands.”

‒ ‘Crush’, ‘Boot Theory’

3. “We have not touched the stars, nor are we forgiven, which brings us back

to the hero’s shoulders and the gentleness that comes, not from the absence of violence, but despite

the abundance of it.” 

‒ ‘Snow And Dirty Rain’

4. "I couldn't get the boy to kill me, but I wore his jacket for the longest time."

‒ ‘Crush’, 'Little Beast'

5. "We pull our boots on with both hands but we can't punch ourselves awake and all I can do

is stand on the curb and say Sorry

about the blood in your mouth. I wish it was mine."

‒ ‘Crush’, 'Little Beast'

6. "I’m battling monsters, I’m pulling you out of the burning buildings and you say I’ll give you anything but you never come through." ‒ ‘Crush’, 'Wishbone'

7. "A man takes his sadness down to the river and throws it in the river but then he’s still left

with the river." ‒ ‘Crush’, ‘Boot Theory’

8. "You want a better story. Who wouldn't?

A forest, then. Beautiful trees. And a lady singing.

Love on the water, love underwater, love, love and so on."

‒ ‘Crush’, 'Litany In Which Certain Things Are Crossed Out'

9. "Love always wakes the dragon and suddenly

flames everywhere.

I can tell already you think I'm the dragon,

that would be so like me, but I'm not. I'm not the dragon.

I'm not the princess either."

‒ ‘Crush’, 'Litany In Which Certain Things Are Crossed Out'

10. "Clumsy hands in a dark room. Crossed out. There is something underneath the floorboards.

Crossed out. And here is the tabernacle reconstructed."

‒ ‘Crush’, 'Litany In Which Certain Things Are Crossed Out'

11. "I want to tell you this story without having to say that I ran out into the street

to prove something, that he chased after me and threw me into the gravel."

‒ ‘Crush’, 'The Torn-Up Road'

12. "We are all going forward. None of us are going back." ‒ ‘Crush’, 'Snow And Dirty Rain'

13. "It's simple: it isn't over, it's just begun. It's green. It's still green." ‒ ‘Crush’, 'Meanwhile'

14. "Trees outside the window and a big band sound that makes you feel like everything's okay,

a feeling that lasts for one song maybe,

the parentheses all clicking shut behind you."

‒ ‘Crush’, 'Meanwhile'

15. "Sunlight pouring across your skin, your shadow

flat on the wall.

The dawn was breaking the bones of your heart like twigs.

You had not expected this,

the bedroom gone white, the astronomical light

pummeling you in a stream of fists."

‒ ‘Crush’, 'Visible World'.

16. "At first there were too many branches so he cut them and then it was winter." ‒ ‘Crush’, 'Unfinished Duet'.

17. "His hands keep turning into birds, and his hands keep flying away from him. Eventually the birds must land." ‒ ‘Crush’, 'Unfinished Duet'.

18. "All the cows were falling out of the sky and landing in the mud.

You were drinking sangria and I was throwing oranges at you,

but it didn’t matter."

‒ ‘Crush’, 'I Had A Dream About You'.

Richard Siken 'War Of The Foxes' Quotes

19. "To have a thought, there must be an object-

the field is empty, sloshed with gold, a hayfield thick

with sunshine."

‒ 'War Of The Foxes', 'Landscape With A Blur Of Conquerors'

20. "I prefer to blame others, it's easier. King me." ‒ 'War Of The Foxes', 'Landscape With A Blur Of Conquerors'

21. "The paint doesn't move the way the light reflects,

so what's there to be faithful to?"

‒ 'War Of The Foxes', 'The Way The Light Reflects'

22. "When you have nothing to say, set something on fire." ‒ 'War Of The Foxes', 'Landscape With Fruit Rot And Millipede'

23. "I cut off my head and threw it in the sky. It turned

into birds. I called it thinking."

‒ 'War Of The Foxes', 'Landscape With Fruit Rot And Millipede'

24. "I have seen your true face: the back of your head." ‒ 'War Of The Foxes', 'Birds Hover The Trampled Field'

25. "I would like to say something about grace, and the brown corduroy thrift store coat I bought for eight-fifty when you told me my paintings were empty." ‒ 'War Of The Foxes', 'Birds Hover The Trampled Field'

26. "I followed myself for a long while, deep into the field.

Two heads full of garbage."

‒ 'War Of The Foxes', 'Details Of The Hayfield'

27. "Yellow, yellow, gold, and ochre.

We stopped. We held the field. We stood very still."

‒ 'War Of The Foxes', 'Details Of The Hayfield'

28. "To be a man on a hill, or all the men on all the hills, or half a man shivering in the flock of himself." ‒ 'War Of The Foxes', 'The Language Of The Birds'

29. "They huddled closer, shoulder to shoulder, painted themselves in herds..." ‒ 'War Of The Foxes', 'The Language Of The Birds'

30. "The hand is a voice that can sing what the voice will not, and the hand wants to do something useful." ‒ 'War Of The Foxes', 'The Language Of The Birds'

31. "You have to hold something still to find the other things." ‒ 'War Of The Foxes', 'Still Life With Skulls And Bacon'

32. “How much can you change and get away with it, before you turn into someone else, before it's some kind of murder?” ‒ 'War Of The Foxes', 'Portrait Of Fryderyk In Shifting Light'

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