186 Quotes by Sharon Olds

Have faith, old heart. What is living, anyway,but dying.

I had not put into words, yet—the worst thing,but I thought that I could say it, if I said itword by word.

If I ever prayed, as a child, for everlastingunion, these were its shoes: one dew-lickedkicked-off slipper of a being now flying, onesunrise-milk-green boot of the dead,which I wore, as I dreamed.

So much had become so connected to himthat it seemed to belong to him, so that now,flying, for hours, above the Atlanticstill felt like being over his realm.

It struck cold awe to my heart,now, to look at who I had beenwho had thought it was impossiblethat he or I could touch another.

And to live in those rooms,where one of his smiles might emerge, like somethingalmost from another place,another time, another setof creatures, was to feel blessed, and to beheld in mysteriousness, and a littlein mourning.

again, again, unquestioned, not fully seen, not wanting to fully see.

We joked about putting it off, butunderneath the joking, grimand hidden, he wanted to leave me, and he wasworking toward it and against it, maybe worriedhe could not do it, longing for itand fearing it, and not speaking of it

and there isnothing to be done for it,it can only be known and borne, it cannot beturned into anything fruitful or sweet,but just be faced, as what it was