“I have stitched life into me like a rare organ--from "Three Women: A Poem for Three Voices", written 1962”

“What did my fingers do before they held him?What did my heart do, with its love?From " Three Women: A Poem for Three Voices", 1962”

“They had to call and callAnd pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.--From the poem "Lady Lazarus", written 23-29 October 1962”

“Is it the sea you hear in me,Its dissatisfactions?Or the voice of nothing, that was you madness?--from "Elm", written 19 April 1962”

“I have suffered the atrocity of sunsets.--from "Elm", written 19 April 1962”

“I have taken a pill to killThe thinPapery feeling.--from "Cut", written 24 October 1962”

“And I a smiling woman.I am only thirty.And like the cat I have nine times to die.-- from "Lady Lazarus", written 23-29 October 1962”