Dannie Abse Quotes

Dannie Abse provides consoling, lyrical reflections on poetry, illness and nature that feel like a gentle meditation.

9 quotes

1. Praying is another way of singing. You plant in the tree the soul of lemons. You plant in the gardens the spirit of roses.

2. I know the colour rose, and it is lovely, But not when it ripens in a tumour.

3. Leave my soul alone, leave my soul alone

4. And silence matched the silence under snow.

5. Are all men in disguise except those crying?

6. I hope to go into a poem sober and come out a little drunk. And if I do then that's a real poem.

7. The theme of Death is to Poetry what Mistaken Identity is to Drama.

8. “You have a beautiful classy mind but I find you physically unattractive”

9. “Piano At 66 Sandringham Crescent an upright piano was being eased down a long flight of stairs by three men all wearing off-white overalls. Backward, staccato, two stepped descending one stair at a time till the taller of the two men began to collapse in slow slow slow motion and the piano leapt to the hallway's rising floor crashing its memories of music: simple tunes such as 3 Blind Mice, as well as great meaningful sonatas of profundity and faraway, into a scattered anarchic jigsaw of free-loving volatile meaningless sounds fading till the stricken piano lost its memory entirely. After the ambulance arrived (too late) one removal man lit a cigarette and sensing the wide-awake stare of the householder tapped the grey ash, with great delicacy, into the cupped hollow of his left hand.”