“Drive down any road,

take a train or an airplane
across the world, leave
your old life behind,

die and be born again~
wherever you arrive
they'll be there first,

glossy and rowdy
and indistinguishable.
The deep muscle of the world.”

—  Mary Oliver

Source: New and Selected Poems, Vol. 1

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Drive down any road, take a train or an airplane across the world, leave your old life behind, die and be born again~…" by Mary Oliver?
Mary Oliver photo
Mary Oliver 98
American writer 1935–2019

Related quotes

Sören Kierkegaard photo

“Once you are born in this world you’re old enough to die.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism
Haruki Murakami photo
Charles Bukowski photo
Philip Pullman photo

“Your dæmon can only live its full life in the world it was born in. Elsewhere it will eventually sicken and die.”

Source: His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass (2000), Ch. 26 : The Abyss
Context: Your dæmon can only live its full life in the world it was born in. Elsewhere it will eventually sicken and die. We can travel, if there are openings into other worlds, but we can only live in our own. Lord Asriel’s great enterprise will fail in the end for the same reason: we have to build the Republic of Heaven where we are, because for us there is no elsewhere.

Kazimir Malevich photo

“.. [that] the overturning of the old world of arts will be etched across your 'palms”

Kazimir Malevich (1879–1935) Russian and Soviet artist of polish descent

recto
admonition from the cover of Malevich's 'novykh sistemakh v iskusstve' (Vitebsk: Unovis, 1919); the cover is reproduced in Malevich: Suprematism and Revolution in Russian Art, Larissa A. Zhadova, (trans. Alexander Lieven); London: Thames and Hudson, 1982
the notice on the verso reads: 'Work and edition by the workshop [artef] of artistic labor at the Vitebsk Svomas'
1910 - 1920

Ambrose Bierce photo

“Along the road of life are many pleasure resorts, but think not that by tarrying in them you will take more days to the journey. The day of your arrival is already recorded.”

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist

Source: Epigrams, p. 364

Ben Aaronovitch photo

“It’s a sad fact of modern life that if you drive long enough, sooner or later you must leave London behind.”

Source: Moon Over Soho (2011), Chapter 1, “Body and Soul” (p. 1)

Van Morrison photo
Anthony Bourdain photo
Anaïs Nin photo

“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

March 1937
Diary entries (1914 - 1974)
Source: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934

Related topics