The personal vocabulary, the individual melody whose metre is one's biography, joins in that sound, with any luck, and the body moves like a walking, a waking island. Derek Walcott biographybodyindividual Change image and share on social
We make too much of that long groan which underlines the past. Derek Walcott groanlongmake Change image and share on social
This is Port of Spain to me, a city ideal in its commercial and human proportions, where a citizen is a walker and not a pedestrian, and this is how Athens may have been before it became a cultural echo. Derek Walcott athenscitizencity share on social
Visual surprise is natural in the Caribbean; it comes with the landscape, and faced with its beauty, the sigh of History dissolves. Derek Walcott beautycaribbeandissolve Change image and share on social
Memory that yearns to join the centre, a limb remembering the body from which it has been severed, like those bamboo thighs of the god. Derek Walcott bamboobodycentre Change image and share on social
Break a vase, and the love that reassembles the fragments is stronger than that love which took its symmetry for granted when it was whole. Derek Walcott breakfragmentgrant Change image and share on social
A culture, we all know, is made by its cities. Derek Walcott cityculturemake Change image and share on social
Because that is what such a city is, in the New World, a writer's heaven. Derek Walcott cityheavenworld Change image and share on social
The English language is nobody's special property. It is the property of the imagination: it is the property of the language itself. Derek Walcott englishimaginationlanguage Change image and share on social
If you know what you are going to write when you're writing a poem, it's going to be average. Derek Walcott averagepoemwrite Change image and share on social
