the hour sinking into the emptiness of my
closed eyes
— Alejandra Pizarnik, from “the hour sinking,” The Galloping Hour: French Poems
Notes:
- Photo: via See More. Quote: Memory’s Landscape
- Related Posts: It’s been a long day
It’s been a long day
August 9, 2018 by 8 Comments
It’s been a long day
July 31, 2018 by 18 Comments
It’s like watching a zoo animal circle its cage.
For the first time, she realizes that being alone is a contradiction in terms.
Even in a body’s most private moments, something else joins in.
~ Richard Powers, from “Trunk” in The Overstory: A Novel
Notes:
- Photo: via Objects of Delight
- Related Posts: It’s been a long day
It’s been a long day
July 25, 2018 by 15 Comments
The mind is a hotel with a thousand rooms. When I tilt my head a certain way, I think about certain things. When I tilt my head another way, I think about other things. If I sleep on the right side of my face, for example, I’d dream of a pale rose, the future, or a continental diner in Passaic, New Jersey. When I sleep on the left side of my face, I’d dream that a hand is squeezing my heart, that I’m in prison, or that I’m watching hockey at an airport bar, about to miss a flight.
~ Linh Dinh, “The Mind” from All Around What Empties Out
Notes:
- Poem: Thank you Beth @ Alive on all Channels. Photo: Eric Rose via Seemore
- Related Posts: It’s been a long day
It’s been a long day
June 6, 2018 by 14 Comments
Physics says: go to sleep. Of course
you’re tired. Every atom in you
has been dancing the shimmy in silver shoes
nonstop from mitosis to now.
Quit tapping your feet…Go to sleep…
Go to sleep. Let darkness
lap at your sides. Give darkness an inch.
You aren’t alone….
here are the blankets, layer on layer, down and down.
— Albert Goldbarth, from “The Sciences Sing a Lullaby” in The Kitchen Sink: New and Selected Poems, 1972-2007
Notes:
- Poem: Thank you Beth @ Alive on all Channels. Photo: via Your Eyes Blaze Out
- Related Posts: It’s been a long day
It’s been a long day
May 30, 2018 by 13 Comments
It isn’t enough.
I was gulping for air that never came. You know, graceless.
Until I let go.
~ Rolando Rios, Queen of the South (S2:E:1)
Notes:
- Photo: Ewa Cwikla via See More
- Related Posts: It’s been a long day
It’s been a long day
May 23, 2018 by 13 Comments
i am
allowing i am
wanting
another place to live
until this body calms down
— Rachel Alexandra Kass, from “A Lone”
Notes:
- Poem: the château of my heart. Photo: via Mennyfox55
- Related Posts: It’s been a long day
It’s been a long day
May 2, 2018 by 18 Comments
Be like the bird, who
Halting in his flight
On limb too slight
Feels it give way beneath him,
Yet sings
Knowing he hath wings.
— Victor Hugo, “The Bird,” Twilight Songs (Les Chants du crépuscule), published in 1835.
Notes:
- Poem: Vale of Soul Making. Photo: Wojciech Paliwoda with Angel (via Your Eyes Blaze Out)
- Related Posts: It’s been a long day
It’s been a long day
April 12, 2018 by 23 Comments
It’s not that I come back to writing after something revelatory or after a profound moment of change, but rather, it’s something small, inconsequential even. I eat berries, I drink stovetop espresso, I run until my knee gives out, I stand in the middle of my room for long periods of time, I water my plants and talk to them….I’m surprised when I eventually do come back to write. I read Alejandra Pizarnik’s line from her poem “Del Silencio” (“Fragments for Subduing the Silence”): Sin embargo, quedé cautiva de la antigua ternura. Each time I read it, I realize that’s all I can do: be tender and patient with myself, and captive in something older than me.
~ Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, from “Writers Recommend” (Poets & Writers, April 12, 2018)
Notes:
- Quote: Lines We Live By. Portrait of Marcelo Hernandez Castillo: Encore
- Related Posts: It’s been a long day
Bath Time!
April 10, 2018 by 24 Comments
Orphaned baby elephants take a mud bath at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya. The elephant orphanage looks after 29 baby elephants orphaned by human-wildlife conflicts and poaching, among other causes. (Dai Kurokawa, wsj.com, April 10, 2018)
It’s been a long day
April 5, 2018 by 22 Comments
I have been thinking how the body
is a vulture—all avarice and need.
How longing creeps up, stalking
for days, catches with such force
it leaves you breathless.
— Carol V. Davis, from “Need” in Into the Arms of Pushkin: Poems of St. Petersburg
Notes:
- Sources: Poem: Thank you Beth via Alive on All Channels. Photo: Patty Maher, After the Fall
- Related Posts: It’s been a long day
