“It’s fit and proper for you to know your sports. / What greater glory attends a man, while he’s alive,” – Homer, ‘The Odyssey’

“my homies are always good / when i ask & i don’t ask enough.” – José Olivarez, “Ojalá: Me & My Guys”

“‘…True—but all lies in the lap of the great gods. / Weaker I am, but I still might take your life / with one hurl of a spear—my weapon can cut too…’/ Grim reminder—“ – Homer, ‘The Iliad’

“What are their bodies made of, rock or iron to block / your tearing bronze? Stab them! Stab their flesh” – Homer, The Iliad

“Rage—Goddess, sing the rage…” – Homer, ‘The Iliad’

“I am a philosopher of sandwiches, he decided…And for a moment the frailest leaves of life contained him in a widening happiness.” – Anne Carson ‘Autobiography of Red’

“I don’t mean to say this shit was no thing. I lived through / your basic fistfight underwater, a tryst with destruction” – ‘Beowulf’ translated by Maria Dahvana Headley

“Another way in my ever-expanding / list of ways to feel less American. // Which is to say, elegant in the face of / my boorishness.” – Alina Pleskova, “ALIGHT”

“Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. He is the hero…” – Raymond Chandler, “The Simple Art of Murder”