“You Have A Lot In Common With The Moon; Its Light & Its Beauty, & Its Distance From Me.”

Arkhangelsk, Russia by Aleksey Yunicyn

Nizar Qabbani once wrote There are some people that we didn't forget, but we don't smile anymore when they're mentioned.

Just like Ahmad Faraz said Ab tere zikr pe hum baat badal dete hain, kitni raghbat thi tere naam se pehle pehle

“I suffered holy pains.”

— Herman Hesse, Steppenwolf

“A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.”

— William G.T. Shedd

Ada Limón, from The Carrying; “Sometimes I think my body leaves a shape in the air”

Spirited Away (2001) dir. Hayao Miyazaki

Ruminations on Godhood & Girlhood: How does a girl become real?

Kristin Chang// Mary Queen of Scots dir. Josie Rourke// Hippolytos translated by Anne Carson// Agnes of God, John Pielmeyer// Romeo and Juliet dir. Franco Zefferelli// Richard Siken// Gwendolyn Macewen// Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn Black Madonna by Magdalena Walulik//Weeping Madonna statue//The Archetypes” Marina and the Diamonds// Joan of Arc mural// Kristin Chang// The Philadelphia Story dir. George Cukor// Nikki Giovanni

“It is well known that those in the grip of heavy enchantments can be wakened only by a lover’s touch. Those who seem dead, who are already returning to the earth, can be restored to life, quickened again by one who is warm. Then, it being night, and the twin stars of Castor and Pollux just visible in the sky, I spoke of that tragedy, of two brothers whose love we might find unnatural, so stricken in grief when one was killed that the other, begging for his life again, accepted instead that for half the year one might live, and for the rest of the year the other, but never the two together. So it is for us, who while on earth in these suits of lead sense the presence of one we love, not far away but too far to touch.”

— Jeanette Winterson, Sexing the Cherry

“There are a few things in life so beautiful they hurt: swimming in the ocean while it rains, reading alone in empty libraries, the sea of stars that appear when you’re miles away from the neon lights of the city, bars after 2am, walking in the wilderness, all the phases of the moon, the things we do not know about the universe, and you.”

— Beau Taplin, “And You”