The Surrender Tree Quotes

“The Little War?
How can there be
a little war?

Are some deaths
smaller than others,
leaving mothers
who weep
a little less?”
― Margarita Engle, The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom

“If we knew how to find
the lost, we would know
how to rediscover
the parts of our minds
left behind
in battle.”
― Margarita Engle, The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom

“The old life is gone, my days are new,
but time is still a mystery
of wishes, and this sad, confusing fragrance. "
—Rosa”
― Margarita Engle, The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom

“Can it be true that freedom only exists when it is a treasure, shared by all?”
― Margarita Engle, The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom

“I can't understand
why dark northern soldiers
and light ones
are separated into different brigades.
The dead are all buried together
in hasty mass graves,
bones touching.”
― Margarita Engle, The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom

“The child tells me her grandmother
showed her how to cure sadness
by sucking the juice of an orange,
while standing on a beach.

Toss the peels onto a wave.
Watch the sadness float away.”
― Margarita Engle, The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom

“Hatred must be a hard thing to learn.”
― Margarita Engle, The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom

“Slavery all day,
and then, suddenly, by nightfall- freedom!”
― Margarita Engle, The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom