Top 100 Dark Poetry Quotes
#1. My poems tend to be more celebratory and lyrical, and the novels so far pretty dark. Poetry doesn't seem to me to be an appropriate tool for exploring that.
John Burnside
#2. we have forgotten what night tastes like,
salted by full moon silver rupturing
the dark. we have forgotten how the skin
sings when the lunar fervor unfurls
across its follicles.
Beth Morey
#3. Moonlight and high wind.
Dark poplars toss, insinuate the sea.
Li-Young Lee
#5. I bought you love poetry! 'I love you as certain dark things are loved, secretly, between the shadow and the soul.'" I blink at him. "Neruda. I starred the passage. God," he moans. "Why didn't you open it?
Stephanie Perkins
#6. absence
looks like a lake bed flooded with sky
sounds like cotton howling
tastes like tear-stained pillows
smells like churning bile and burnt hair
feels like screaming agony, my heart dying and dying
Beth Morey
#7. We like to think we live in daylight, but half the world is always dark, and fantasy, like poetry, speaks the language of the night.
Ursula K. Le Guin
#8. We are merely ghost flowers under the shade of the moon
Many shades of secret sorrows blanket our eyes
We spend our lives and our souls
Searching-
Longing-
Waiting-
For a little light to shine and heal our broken halo's
Steven A. Williams
#9. In my dream the shadings of your soul are the dark tincture of rain ...
John Geddes
#10. Not a day passes when the eagle of dark depression doesn't take flight in my soul, said Sunay, infusing his words with mysterious pride. But I cannot catch myself. So hold yourself in. All's well that ends well.
Orhan Pamuk
#11. Yes, I read. I have that absurd habit. I like beautiful poems, moving poetry, and all the beyond of that poetry. I am extraordinarily sensitive to those poor, marvelous words left in our dark night by a few men I never knew.
Louis Aragon
#12. Poems arrive. They hide in feelings and images, in weeds and delivery vans, daring us to notice and give them form with our words. They take us to an invisible world where light and dark, inside and outside meet.
Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge
#13. The light too brief to finish any work
the woman seeks to amplify the dark
Leatha Kendrick
#14. Love is heavy and light, bright and dark, hot and cold, sick and healthy, asleep and awake- its everything except what it is! (Act 1, scene 1)
William Shakespeare
#15. i feel the spring breeze ruffling
the new-hatched damp of my unfurling
feathers; i see with eyes bleary from egg-dark
the shell clinging sticky to my screaming
beak.
Beth Morey
#16. Through the darkest hours of the night
and through the dreamers realm I seek,
Far beyond the starry sky
and beyond galaxies I am free.
Through the grimmest memories
and past a seasons air I cannot breathe,
Far beyond this mortal world
in an afterlife we shall meet.
Lee Argus
#17. Where music thundered let the mind be still,
Where the will triumphed let there be no will,
What light revealed, now let the dark fulfill.
May Sarton
#18. There's a book of poetry
in the lines of my hands
that no one wants to read
Holly Schindler
#19. i knew his heart
was yours
but i wanted
to become
an alchemist
to make gold
of the pieces
i received
because
all i ever felt
was the dark side
of his leaded heart.
K.Y. Robinson
#20. Night never needs a shade
but it requires to fade
into the grin of twinkling stars
where light is just a glint of scars
Munia Khan
#21. Rebuke
Obstinate regression
bringing untold paths
of deep dark foreboding
depression...
Muse
#22. She who is in slow motion,
Is glowing red with blood
Which is mine.
Keishi Ando
#23. We say God and the imagination are one ...
How high that highest candle lights the dark.
Wallace Stevens
#24. Let me begin again as a speck
of dust caught in the night winds
sweeping out to sea. Let me begin
this time knowing the world is
salt water and dark clouds, the world
is grinding and sighing all night, and dawn
comes slowly, and changes nothing.
Philip Levine
#26. I will Basquiat the canvas of your body like a Broadway Junction wall ... and Gordon Parks you for those dark midnights when your scent fades.
Brandi L. Bates
#27. It ... whatever 'it' is, has swallowed me and I lie here in the pit of its cold dark stomach being eaten alive by its bile and I ... I don't even know if I want to be saved.
Kellie Elmore
#28. I think that the dark side of MFA programs is that they're generating more poets than the culture can absorb and there are more people writing poetry than possibly read it or can certainly earn a living around it.
Edward Hirsch
#29. Darling, even raindrops try to wipe my teardrops but your thoughts haul out more tears from my liquid eyes and then teardrops replace raindrops ...
Abhishek Rath
#30. The moon is no door. It is a face in its own right,
White as a knuckle and terribly upset.
It drags the sea after it like a dark crime; it is quiet
With the O-gape of complete despair. I live here.
Sylvia Plath
#31. Poetry: three mismatched shoes at the entrance of a dark alley.
Charles Simic
#32. Snub end of a dismal year,
deep in the dwarf orchard,
The sky with its undercoat of blackwash and point stars,
I stand in the dark and answer to
My life, this shirt I want to take off,
which is on fire ...
Charles Wright
#33. Sitting on couch, lying legs apart
Dark dirty naked. Smiling at me,
Wicked lazy lusty eyes. I moaned,
When saw movement inside his silent,
The thick forest of pubic hair.
Delicious David
#34. Suffering is permanent, obscure and dark,
And has the nature of infinity.
William Wordsworth
#35. This dark December day inspires him to write / the plainest things in the snow, then walk away.
Chard DeNiord
#36. When my desire
grows too fierce
I wear my bed clothes
inside out,
dark as the night's rough husk.
Ono No Komachi
#37. Drugs
to me
have always been
a pretty girl
with a sly smile
beckoning me
with a finger
down the dark path
of a fork in the road.
Atticus Poetry
#38. So it became,
the law of universe,
to have the,
profoundest,
of the words,
cloaked in the,
darkest of the masks.
Jasleen Kaur Gumber
#39. You touched my flawed life so gently with love
burning upward in dark steady flame
burning me, burning me into healing.
Christy Brown
#40. The ring comes whenever it will
because it's dark
where the mountains mother
and being stuck in one spot
is something to ring bells about
Fanny Howe
#41. Every known thing used to be unknown
And every rock could become a stone
Someday nature will have to atone
When soul sees dead flesh leaving the bone
Munia Khan
#42. Society's dark hull drifts further and further away. It is this place - the place of our separation, our distinction - that much of his poetry occupies.
Tomas Transtromer
#43. I always wrote poetry as a teenager and it was always so dark, but it made me feel good to get it out.
Pink
#44. His voice is muddy, that's what it is. Dark and brown and muddy. A note to it like coffee left too long on the burner. And unsweetened, bitter chocolate. But there's dirt in it too, deep, dark dirt, like the garden in October.
Jael McHenry
#45. What is thy body but a swallowing grave,
Seeming to bury that posterity
Which, by the rights of time, thou needs must have
If thou destroy them not in dark obscurity?
If so, the world will hold thee in disdain,
Sith in thy pride so fair a hope is slain.
William Shakespeare
#46. I hear they make greeting cards now
to thank your therapist ... for NOTHING
Casey Renee Kiser
#47. All in all, I'd say,
the world is strangling.
And I, in my bed each night,
listen to my twenty shoes
converse about it.
And the moon,
under its dark hood,
falls out of the sky each night,
with its hungry red mouth
to suck at my scars.
Anne Sexton
#48. I don't want to go on being a root in the dark,
vacillating, stretched out, shivering with sleep,
downward, in the soaked guts of the earth,
absorbing and thinking, eating each day.
Pablo Neruda
#49. The ethos and critique are of poetry, which becomes a rich dark with a phosphorescence of lyric as witness.
Mei-mei Berssenbrugge
#50. Depths of Friendship
... under fathoms deep
of dark and bitter cold
an eerie oscillation
reverberated brash and bold ...
Muse
#51. In the dark I rest,
unready for the light which dawns
day after day,
eager to be shared.
Black silk, shelter me.
I need
more of the night before I open
eyes and heart
to illumination. I must still
grow in the dark like a root
not ready, not ready at all.
Denise Levertov
#52. Poetry operates by hints and dark suggestions. It is full of secrets and hidden formulae, like a witch's brew.
Anthony Hecht
#53. Take us to the in-between,
Where earth meets sky, and wake meets dream.
And time rushes by, unseen.
Take us to the infinite night,
Where up is down, and left is right,
And dark vanquishes light.
S.L. Stacy
#54. forge forever on
tho' dark death rewards us all
forge forever on
Kurt Brindley
#55. The River Swish
Deftly maneuvered through
the dark green abyss ~
The wooden raft seemed
in tune with this ~
Canorous rush of the
river swish....
Muse
#56. A passing face together with his grief turned you into a weeping Madonna ...
John Geddes
#57. I believe the night I've never met
hides one elusive star I need
to divide me between darkness and light
Munia Khan
#58. Have I told you? - your eyes are a dark poem of dancing snow at midnight ...
John Geddes
#59. Under star-dark seas and skies of gold
Live those Above and those Below
They sing and weep, both high and deep
While over and under the ocean rolls
Ally Condie
#60. A fruitless year, take a fearless heart
One that blooms late will flourish in the dark
Criss Jami
#61. The garden was full of sorrow
Songbirds and unusual winds whistled a rhyme
Clouds caused to appear and cast down darkness
For this was the first day the sun didn't shine
John E. Wordslinger
#62. Feel no fear before the multitude of men, do not run in panic,
but let each man bear his shield straight toward the fore-fighters,
regarding his own life as hateful and holding the dark spirits of death as dear as the radiance of the sun.
Tyrtaeus
#63. Maybe tranquility is the dirt under my nails. I know it's there but I never feel like digging it out.
Casey Renee Kiser
#64. You do not see the painting in the attic
The maggots on skin that tear.
The beauty is a trick.
Narcissus - promise naught but air...' ~ Dorian Gray
Stella Coulson
#65. I started writing poetry when I was six. I had this teacher who didn't believe the poems I'd bring in were mine because they were dark and sad. But I wrote about what I experienced in my childhood.
Mariah Carey
#66. A hallowed frequency within
That, even in your darkest hour,
You can always turn to.
Scott Hastie
#67. The dark night was the first book of poetry and the constellations were the poems.
Chet Raymo
#68. With a ring around the rosary
And a pocket full of crosses
Ashes to ashes
They'll all fall down
Matthew Fitzpatrick
#69. The Jewel
There is this cave
In the air behind my body
That nobody is going to touch:
A cloister, a silence
Closing around a blossom of fire.
When I stand upright in the wind,
My bones turn to dark emeralds.
James Wright
#70. TOMORROW'S WILL
Silent world, I find myself,
Glad no one hears my thoughts.
In dark cocoon, I hibernate,
Yet spirit spills every thought.
A second chance to try again.
The risks I know too well.
Two sunsets turning into six-
Awaits tomorrow's will.
Giorge Leedy
#71. Following dark winter's strife, a warm air rises, teemed with life. Birth, rebirth, as the waiting die. Old love, new love sprouts wings to fly.
Phar West Nagle
#72. Linear's defeated form
The intangible reality rise.' ~ Wanderer
Stella Coulson
#73. The Net
I made you many and many a song,
Yet never one told all you are
It was as though a net of words
Were flung to catch a star;
It was as though I curved my hand
And dipped sea-water eagerly,
Only to find it lost the blue
Dark splendor of the sea.
Sara Teasdale
#74. Poetry is more than just art, it's like super glue to a broken heart. It can also be a light when your life seems a little dark.
Delano Johnson
#75. At two o'clock in the morning, if you open your window and listen,
You will hear the feet of the Wind that is going to call the sun.
And the trees in the Shadow rustle and the trees in the moonlight glisten,
And though it is deep, dark night, you feel that the night is done.
Rudyard Kipling
#76. In your sky, you are the brightest star.
Without you light, it's dark like tar.
So love yourself to enlighten others.
Debasish Mridha
#77. I'll put my lips up to your gun and blow, just so you'll know I can be bold once I'm shining bright.
Casey Renee Kiser
#79. Come closer, my dears, let me give you a warning,
Of the fate that befalls those who stay out past morning,
In the darkest hours before the dawn,
When witches roam and demons spawn,
And children die with spirit gone,
Magicked away in the gloaming.
Nenia Campbell
#80. Poetry in the dark of the night you are my torch.
Poetry makes you believe in the freedom in your own home.
Poetry causes the increase of the human race.
Poetry ennobles the spirit of man.
Poetry is like a noble fragrance that caresses your soul.
Poetry is the royal essence of beauty.
Kristian Goldmund Aumann
#81. Waking At Night
The blue river is grey at morning
and evening. There is twilight
at dawn and dusk. I lie in the dark
wondering if this quiet in me now
is a beginning or an end.
Jack Gilbert
#83. My husband says spring will be early.
He says this every year,
And every year I disagree.
He needs me, the dark side of the planetary equation.
Together we make the equinox.
Lisel Mueller
#84. Poetry is a sky dark with a wild-duck migration.
Carl Sandburg
#85. Oh, precious losing streak,
you're too cute for your own good.
I try to laugh about it
but my face is made of wood.
Casey Renee Kiser
#86. Only tears can hear the sound of pain
when warm blood reddens discolored stain
Munia Khan
#87. Nobody wanted your dance,
Nobody wanted your strange glitter, your floundering
Drowning life and your effort to save yourself,
Treading water, dancing the dark turmoil,
Looking for something to give.
Ted Hughes
#88. Face in the Sun with the dark circles of beautiful nights the mouths of tigers.
Gwen Calvo
#89. There's no poetry in me, Reginleit. No fine words." He stared down at her, his gaze seeming to consume her. "I come to you as a man unfinished.
Kresley Cole
#90. And then,
There was a love
Shining so bright,
That even the darkest part
Of our hearts
Felt the warmth
Bryonie Wise
#91. I started with poetry because it was direct, immediate, and short. It was the ecstasy of striking matches in the dark.
Erica Jong
#92. He loved me like thick molasses on a summer's day. Pure, sweet, sticky, warm, dark.
Danabelle Gutierrez
#93. The robin brushes me at dusk.
Our good bones fail. We leave no mark.
His voice, she writes, was clear and quiet.
I hear him singing in the dark.
("Edward Thomas' Daughter")
Alison Brackenbury
#94. The dark, cold grasp you took on me, has tangled me completely
Victoria Manning
#96. Dark and pregnant clouds gave birth and fist-sized stones of hail hammered the earth.
Michael R. Fletcher
#97. The exceeding brightness of this early sun
Makes me conceive how dark I have become.
Wallace Stevens
#98. In the dark to see, you ass-scratchers! In the dark to see.
Charles Simic
#99. Poetry at least in my own life, is really about your own mortality. Everything in poetry makes me think of my mortality. It is not a dark thing in life; it prepares you for the graceful things that happen in your life. It gives me a license to make any kind of picture I want with great courage.
Keith Carter
#100. People are looking for chimes and resonances. Chimes leave echoes, and that's what rhyme is. Poetry is about leaving an echo imprint in somebody else's head, in the dark snow of their mind.
Diana Georgeff
