đŻđ 1. mary oliver, devotions: softest of mornings / 2. ponyo (2008) / 3. vanessa angelica villarreal, a field of onions: brown study / 4. only yesterday (1991) / 5. federico garcĂa lorca, new heart / 6. @heartcountry, the honey running down my arm / 7. red honey as a result of bees feasting on cherries / 8. nikos kazantzakis, report to greco / 9. by nur_light / 10. @heartcountry, the things that donât rotÂ
a lonely nye (third in a row)
dc literally has better villains than marvel because marvel antagonists are always like âi wear ALL BLACK and THREE PIECE SUITS and i kill people because iâm SAD insideâ meanwhile everyone in gotham just be off the shits and have an actual aesthetic and presentation Â
âIâve been a massage therapist for many years, now. I know what people look like. People have been undressing for me for a long time. I know what you look like: a glance at you, and I can picture pretty well what youâd look like on my table. Letâs start here with what nobody looks like: nobody looks like the people in magazines or movies. Not even models. Nobody. Lean people have a kind of rawboned, unfinished look about them that is very appealing. But they donât have plump round breasts and plump round asses. You have plump round breasts and a plump round ass, you have a plump round belly and plump round thighs as well. Thatâs how it works. And thatâs very appealing too. Woman have cellulite. All of them. Itâs dimply and cute. Itâs not a defect. Itâs not a health problem. Itâs the natural consequence of not consisting of photoshopped pixels, and not having emerged from an airbrush. Men have silly buttocks. Well, if most of your clients are women, anyway. You come to male buttocks and you say â what, this is it? Theyâre kind of scrawny and the tissue is jumpy because itâs unpadded; you have to dial back the pressure, or theyâll yelp. Adults sag. It doesnât matter how fit they are. Every decade, an adult sags a little more. All of the tissue hangs a little looser. They wrinkle, too. I donât know who put about the rumor that just old people wrinkle. You start wrinkling when you start sagging, as soon as youâre all grown up, and the process goes its merry way as long as you live. Which is hopefully a long, long time, right? Everybody on a massage table is beautiful. There are really no exceptions to this rule. At that first long sigh, at that first thought that âI can stop hanging on now, Iâm safeâ â a luminosity, a glow, begins. Within a few minutes the whole body is radiant with it. It suffuses the room: it suffuses the massage therapist too. People talk about massage therapists being caretakers, and I suppose we are: we like to look after people, and weâre easily moved to tenderness. But to let you in on a secret: Iâm in it for the glow. Iâll tell you what people look like, really: they look like flames. Or like the stars, on a clear night in the wilderness.â
â What People Really Look Like
"Quivering" is my least-favourite word in the english language. Nothing and nobody should be quivering. If you're quivering right now, stop that shit immediately. Tremble or shake if you must but the quivering has to stop.
thereâs a part in the howlâs moving castle dub where howlâs freaking out because he doesnât think heâs beautiful anymore and sophie just says âyou think youâve got it bad? iâve never once been beautiful in my entire lifeâ and that quoteâs been echoing around my brain since i was nine years old
i hate the idea of a True Self that you Never Show To Anyone like the me by myself isnât me partly because humans are defined imo by their social interactions as we are social creatures but mostly because that guy is a gremlin. the disgusting idiot who crawls out of my bed at 1pm and eats peanut butter from the jar isnât me heâs the manifestation of a collection of weird impulses that all give way at once. saying that dude is Truly Me In An Objective Way, as if that exists, is such bullshit like [holds up a creature that is on the cusp of going insane because its species literally cannot be alone for any significant amount of time] behold, a True Self! give me a break
Some warm poetry, for cold evenings:
Molly Fisk, âWinter Sunâ (We can make do with so little / just the hint of warmth, the slanted light.)
Pat Schneider, âThe Patience of Ordinary Thingsâ (It is a kind of love, is it not? / how the cup holds the tea.)
Barbara Ras, âBite Every Sorrowâ (You can speak a foreign language, sometimes / and it can mean something.)
Jack Gilbert, âFailing and Flyingâ (Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.)
Lisel Mueller, âThingsâ (Even what was beyond us / was recast in our image; / we gave the country a heart, / the storm an eye)
Rabindranath Tagore, âOn the Seashoreâ (The sea plays with children, and pale gleams the smile of the sea-beach / On the seashore of endless worlds children meet)
John OâDonohue, âMatinsâ (May I live this day / Compassionate of heart / Gentle in word / Courageous in thought)
Wallace Stevens, âThe House Was Quiet and The World Was Calmâ (The summer night is like a perfection of thought. / The house was quiet because it had to be)
Brian Patten, âInessential Thingsâ (Cats remember what is essential of days)
Emily Dickinson, âSimplicityâ (How happy is the little stone / that rambles in the road, alone)
Yi Lu, âValleyâs Greenâ (flowers like tiny saucers â little bowls â little cups / filled to the brim with their own colors)
Jacques PrĂŠvert, âHow to Paint a Birdâs Portraitâ (When the bird comes / if it comes / observe the most profound silence)
Archibald MacLeish, âElevenâ (Happy as though he had no name, as though⨠/ He had been no one: like a leaf, a stem,⨠/ Like a root growingâŚ)
Denise Levertov, âA Woman Aloneâ (Then / self-pity dries up, a joy / untainted by guilt lifts her. / She has fears, but not about loneliness)
Richard Brautigan, âYour Catfish Friendâ (Iâd love you and be your catfish / friend and drive such lonely / thoughts from your mind)
Linda Gregg, âThe Letterâ (Iâm not feeling strong yet, but I am taking⨠/ good care of myself)
Andrew Lang, âBallade of True Wisdomâ (And Iâd leave all the hurry, the noise, and the fray, / For a house full of books, and a garden of flowers)
Ada LimĂłn, âThe Raincoatâ (my whole life Iâve been under her / raincoat thinking it was somehow a marvel / that I never got wet.)
Jorge Luis Borges, âThe Justâ (These people, unaware, are saving the world)
Wendell Berry, âThe Peace of Wild Thingsâ (I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.)