Vera Pavlova Quotes

#1. Dropped
and falling
from such
heights
for so
long
that
maybe
I will have
enough time
to learn
flying

Vera Pavlova

#2. Poetry should be written the way adultery is committed: on the run, on the sly, during the time not accounted for. And then you come home, as if nothing ever happened,

Vera Pavlova

#3. ... if necessary, the books shall be divided as follows:
you get the odd, I get the even pages;
"the books" are understood to mean the ones we used to read aloud
together, when we would interrupt our reading for a kiss,
and would get back to the book after half an hour ...

Vera Pavlova

#4. I broke your heart.
Now barefoot I tread
on shards.

Vera Pavlova

#5. The first kiss in the morning
tastes like the first kiss on earth.
My waking soul is innocent,
as I lie next to the tenant
of my best dreams.
When I caress him I know:
a kiss is preverbal,
a word is a kiss's junior.

Vera Pavlova

#6. We lay down, and the pain let up.
We embraced, and the pain let go:
no more scalding regrets,
no scorching remorse
that oppressed the soul,
that weighted like a stone on the heart.
You, on top of me, heavy, immense,
and I, feeling so light.

Vera Pavlova

#7. I have brushed my teeth.
This day and I are even.

Vera Pavlova

#8. Let us touch each other
while we still have hands,
palms, forearms, elbows ...
Let us love each other for misery,
torture each other, torment,
disfigure, maim,
to remember better,
to part with less pain.

Vera Pavlova

#9. Thought's surface: word.
Word's surface: gesture.
Gesture's surface: skin.
Skin's surface: shiver.

Vera Pavlova

#10. Basked in the sun,listened to birds,licked off raindrops,and only in flightthe leaf saw the treeand graspedwhat it had been.

Vera Pavlova

#11. Why is the word yes so brief?
it should be
the longest,
the hardest,
so that you could not decide in an instant to say it,
so that upon reflection you could stop
in the middle of saying it.

Vera Pavlova