Skip to content

I pass you my Poem.
A poem doesn’t do everything for you.
You are supposed to go on with your thinking.
You are supposed to enrich
the other person’s poem with your extensions,
your uniquely personal understandings,
thus making the poem serve you.

— Gwendolyn Brooks Winnie (1988)

Another quote →

More quotes by Gwendolyn Brooks

Art is a refining and evocative translation of the materials of the world.

Black Poetry Writing (1975)

Truth-tellers are not always palatable.
There is a preference for candy bars.

Gottschalk and the Grande Tarantelle (1988)

Art hurts. Art urges voyages—
and it is easier to stay at home.

The Chicago Picasso (1968)

You don’t get all your questions answered in this world.

Winnie (1988)

Exhaust the little moment.
Soon it dies.
And be it gash or gold it will not come
Again in this identical guise.

All Gwendolyn Brooks quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Gwendolyn Brooks (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.