- Birthday, Books, Quotes, Reading, Writing

“Lose something every day.”

Happy birthday, Elizabeth Bishop! Here are some quotes from her writing.

“Oh, must we dream our dreams / and have them, too?”

“I was made at right angles to the world / and I see it so. I can only see it so.”

“Think of the long trip home. Should we have stayed home and thought of here?” Where should we be today?

“Hoping to live days of greater happiness, I forget that days of less happiness are passing by.”

“[O]ne shouldn’t get too involved with people who can’t possibly understand one…”

  • John Madera is the author of Nervosities (Anti-Oedipus Press, 2024) and Nomad Science (Spuyten Duyvil Press, forthcoming in 2026).  His  fiction is also published in Conjunctions, Salt Hill, Hobart, The &Now Awards 2: The Best Innovative Writing, and many other journals. His poetry is also published in elimae, Sixth Finch, Contrapuntos, and elsewhere. His criticism is published in American Book Review, Bookforum, The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Rain Taxi: Review of Books, The Believer, The Brooklyn Rail, and many other venues. Recipient of an M.F.A. in Literary Arts from Brown University, two-time New York State Council on the Arts awardee John Madera lives in New York City, where he runs Rhizomatic and manages and edits Big Other.

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