What thou lovest well remains, / the rest is dross / What thou lov'st well shall not be reft from thee / What thou lov'st well is thy true heritage -- Ezra Pound, Canto LXXXI

There's something in me that insists it sings / Freely, for nothing, the lovely, lonely art / Called poetry, an art you understand. (from 'Venezuela' by Douglas Dunn)

All books are merely delayed dust. - George Elliott Clarke

'here I am, on the edge of animation, / a dream, a dance, a fantastic construction'. Moniza Alvi

I understood that my words could be used as a weapon. James Matthews

As one long prepared, and graced with courage, say goodbye to her, the Alexandria that is leaving. - C.P. Cavafy 'The God Abandons Antony'

Here lies, whom hound did ne'er pursue, nor swifter greyhound follow, whose foot ne'er tainted morning dew, nor ear heard huntsman's halloo'. - William Cowper 'Epitaph on a hare'

And die of nothing but a rage to live

Woman! too long degraded, scorned, opprest; / O born to rule in partial Law's despite, / Resume thy native empire o'er the breast! Anna Laetitia Barbauld, 'The Rights of Women'

Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. Percy Bysshe Shelley, 'Ode to a Skylark'

Lord teach wings how/in the stark silence of these evenings/ in the fine chiselled rock spaces/ to fold and nest... - 'After Heartease New England', Velma Pollard

Silence is more musical than any song. Christina Rossetti