no keys

The purpose of poetry is to remind us
how difficult it is to remain just one person,
for our house is open, there are no keys in the doors,
and invisible guests come in and out at will.

—Czeslaw Milosz, from “Ars Poetica?” in The Collected Poems: 1931-1987 (Ecco Press, 1988)

under one small star

Forgive me, distant wars, for bringing flowers home.

[…]

My apologies to great questions for small answers.

Couple of lines from the poem “Under One Small Star” by Wislawa Szymborska, translated by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh

to see a soul

“Quem não vê bem uma palavra, não pode ver bem uma alma."

"One who cannot see a word well, cannot see a soul well."

—Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935)

beginning and end

The beginning and end of all literary activity is the reproduction of the world that surrounds me by means of the world that is in me, all things being grasped, related, recreated, moulded, and reconstructed in a personal form and original manner.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 to 1832)

[A favorite quote of the Edward Hopper who said it applied equally to painting.]

critic struck dumb

To create a work of art that the critic cannot even talk about ought to be the artist’s chief concern.

—John Ashbery, Art News, May 1972