The limitations of language - sounds and symbols that encapsulate that which is fundamentally incommunicable - perception, first hand experience
my five year plan? read a lot of books. visit museums. walk through woods. stand in a river. adopt a little kitty. drink lemonade while sitting in a rocking chair on my porch.
Anne Carson, from “The Glass Essay” (Glass, Irony, and God)
October is my empire. Terror is part of me. 一 Tamura Ryūichi
1. Alfonsina Storni, 2. Cy Twombly, 3. William Stanley Merwin, 4. Cy Twombly, 5. Virginia Woolf, 6. Jorge Albericio, 7. Gala Mukomolova, 8. Andrei Tarkovsky, 9. Czesław Miłosz, 10. Andrei Tarkovsky, 11. Thomas Wolfe, 12. Andrei Tarkovsky, 13. Louise Glück
I run my hand through the same old withered branches,
Drenched in the same old tired rain,
Far away the sunset harbours the lost gold of
Odysseys gone by, and if the wind were to hide
Within it some unremembered glow from the land
Of unknown secrets, the evening will gently
Whisk away the covers of the coquette,
And reveal to us a maiden under the bent willow,
Sweet as the apples from the orchards where our dreams
Were buried. She will beckon for the children
To gather around the fire and tell them the story
Of Zerah and Zulamith, whilst we twist the
Slender branches of the cherry tree into a throne
Fit for the brides of heaven to recline on,
Place at the altar a wreath of dead roses,
And hope that the silent fragrance borne to the shore
Is enough for the sea to give up the child
She drew to her heart in death’s storm.
…
And dare I tag anyone? @pollosky-in-blue perhaps you’ll like the story?
Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place // Chen Chen, When I Grow Up I Want to be a List of Further Possibilities // Warsan Shire, Conversations About Home // Fatimah Asghar, Partition // Aysha, Diaspora Defiance // Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous // Kaveh Akbar, Do You Speak Persian? // Safia Elhillo, Date Night With Abdelhalim Hafez // Gustavo Perez Firmat, Bilingual Blues // Scherezade Siobhan, How to Welcome the Dead
who needs a social life when you have followers who don’t talk to you and you run a blog no one cares about
Queen of hearts, bows to the fools parade, insanity is a strange thing to take comfort in. ‘Mere blood and bone’ will lure you to depths of life/hell which human hand (only) must (only) touch. Vega of the lyre and bellatrix of the Orion in a dance of lights and life, bitterness sings a frayed melody to the hearthstone, listen to her woebegone voice in the soft refrain, fold away your letters and give away your life, for its not sadness but despair that requests it. Believe in phantoms, and one as old as yourself wants to touch your windows and watch its fragile hands pass through the glass.
A fond insect hovering around your shoulder. I like Kafka, in case you're wondering.
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