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3 poems
by PJ Carmichael
Read More »On the way home, a bite to eat and songs
to fill the air, our voices in unison
as the journey continues. -
Quote of the Week, #7
… this happy white woman who is constantly shoved under our noses, this woman we are all supposed to work hard to resemble – never mind that she seems to be running herself ragged for not much reward – I for one have never met her, not anywhere. My hunch is that she doesn’t exist.
– Virginie Despentes, King Kong Theory
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Song of the Week, #6
— U.S. Girls – Bless This Mess
Thank the sky for the deluge Forget your nightmares And the dreams that didn't come true You don't need no map When every road ends I heard from God and she said, "I bless this mess. Goddamn, yr doing yr best."
Ok, true, the song and the video were released months ago, but the album went live on 4AD a week ago, check it out here!
What’s your song of the week?
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The Weather Between Us
by Christian Ward
Read More »I’ll say rain, you’ll shout hail
I’ll bellow thunder, you’ll scream lightning
I’ll sing sunshine, you’ll hum clouds
I’ll chant breeze, you’ll repeat gales
I’ll whisper snow, you’ll return blizzard.
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When we say perfect day, do we really mean perfect?
Isn’t it like in that old cliché which supposedly says beauty (and perfection) is in the imperfections?
When we asked you on Instagram what is your one-word description of a good day, the words that came up were: serene, reading, adventure, creative, contentment, relaxing, nature, productive… So many different definitions that (we are sure) change daily for each of us.
So, we started thinking about another question that can help your inspiration: what is the one tiny or grand perfection you can find on a normal day, that one joyous kick or spur of motivation, a moment after a hard day that makes you accept the bitter-sweetness and makes you feel like life is alright after all, that might fill you up with sense and meaning or just peace?
Maybe, a perfect day is compiled of moments of being that ground us, reconnect us to ourselves and our humanity. Maybe, just one such moment is enough.
We would love to hear what it all means to you! Send us your submissions for our monthly challenge till next Friday 😉
(Yes, you only have a week left.)
P. S.: We might also accept ironic interpretations of the phrase perfect day. Try us. Those can be the greatest lessons.
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Quote of the Week, #6
The systematic looting of language can be recognized by the tendency of its users to forgo its nuanced, complex, mid-wifery properties for menace and subjugation. Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge. Whether it is obscuring state language or the faux-language of mindless media; whether it is the proud but calcified language of the academy or the commodity driven language of science; whether it is the malign language of law-without-ethics, or language designed for the estrangement of minorities, hiding its racist plunder in its literary cheek – it must be rejected, altered and exposed. It is the language that drinks blood, laps vulnerabilities, tucks its fascist boots under crinolines of respectability and patriotism as it moves relentlessly toward the bottom line and the bottomed-out mind. Sexist language, racist language, theistic language – all are typical of the policing languages of mastery, and cannot, do not permit new knowledge or encourage the mutual exchange of ideas.
[…]
Be it grand or slender, burrowing, blasting, or refusing to sanctify; whether it laughs out loud or is a cry without an alphabet, the choice word, the chosen silence, unmolested language surges toward knowledge, not its destruction. But who does not know of literature banned because it is interrogative; discredited because it is critical; erased because alternate? And how many are outraged by the thought of a self-ravaged tongue?
Word-work is sublime, she thinks, because it is generative; it makes meaning that secures our difference, our human difference – the way in which we are like no other life.
We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.
– Toni Morrison, Nobel Lecture 1993
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Maps
by Erin Mullens
Read More »I draw maps on the wall. Maps to nowhere.
Little burned charcoal sticks I pick up
From the remains of the fireplace, scrawling
On the edges of the stone floor underneath
My bed. I slip my body under there, so tiny
And pretend I don’t even exist in the world.
I am not here I am not a person I am not real
And I draw a little map to find a way to another world.
I’ll open a portal under my bed. I’ll escape.
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Song of the Week, #5
— Tallest Man On Earth – Every Little Heart
… I’m going to see the world through every little heart I know …
What’s your song of the week?
P.S.: There are five more songs we noticed and appreciated so far this year on our 2023 Highlights playlist. Check it out on YouTube or SoundCloud.
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Quote of the Week, #5
I’ve concluded that bittersweetness is not, as we tend to think, just a momentary feeling or event. It’s also a quiet force, a way of being, a storied tradition—as dramatically overlooked as it is brimming with human potential. It’s an authentic and elevating response to the problem of being alive in a deeply flawed yet stubbornly beautiful world. Most of all, bittersweetness shows us how to respond to pain: by acknowledging it, and attempting to turn it into art, the way the musicians do, or healing, or innovation, or anything else that nourishes the soul.
– Susan Cain, Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole
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