my heart is burning for you

literary excerpts that make me think of that one person + the occasional writing of my own

[llovelymoonn]

on names and love

mahmoud darwish the death of the phoenix (via @tenderfaery) \ @softestsunbeams​ \ franz kafka letters to milena (via @metamorphesque​)

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[if-i-do-fall]

“When the soft sweet showers of April reach the roots of all things, refreshing the parched earth, nourishing every sapling and every seedling, then humankind rises up in joy and expectation. The west wind blows away the stench of the city, and the crops flourish in the fields beyond the walls. After the waste of winter it is delightful to hear birdsong once more in the streets. The trees themselves are bathed in song. It is a time of renewal, of general restoration.”

The Canterbury Tales: “The General Prologue” - Geoffrey Chaucer (14th Century) - Adapted by Peter Ackroyd (2009)

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"Love Is a ripe plum Growing on a purple tree. Taste it once And the spell of its enchantment Will never let you be."

- Love Song for Lucinda, Langston Hughes

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"If each day a flower climbs up to your lips to seek me, ah my love, ah my own, in me all that fire is repeated in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten, my love feeds on your love, beloved, and as long as you live it will be in your arms without leaving mine."

- If You Forget Me, Pablo Neruda

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"In the depths of your ribcage I want to be— Not a prisoner, But an everlasting song.

The melody that clothes your body The mellow ballads, That move your bones."

- Everlasting, Clairel Estevez (2017)

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"I want to find the wandering feet That with mine will walk the world. Someone warm against my skin When the winter nights are cold."

- The Special One, Clairel Estevez

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"I want to find the missing colors, For my life is black and white. Someone crawling in my thoughts When I try to sleep at night."

- The Special One, Clairel Estevez

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"If you are not in love, how can you enjoy the blinding light of the sun, the soft light of the moon?"

- Omar Khayyám

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"We would be together and have our books and at night be warm in bed together with the windows open and the stars bright."

- A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway (1964)

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"In case you ever foolishly forget: I am never not thinking of you."

- Selected diaries, Virginia Woolf

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"Happiness is holding someone in your arms and knowing you hold the whole world."

- Snow, Orhan Pamuk (2002)

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"My love's mad music unbridles the wind, Sets fire to winter and pulls down the sun; Lets loose on the weather a cloud of loud birds. To the whip of bent time, advances the summer; The moon sings white, and the seas leap hard At her ice-breaking words."

- My Love's Mad Music, David Lougée (1950)

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"I wanna make growing old with you the last poem I ever have to write."

- Michael Biondi

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"I will hide my soul and its mighty love     In the bosom of this rose, And its dispensing breath will take     My love wherever it goes.

And perhaps she’ll pluck this very rose,     And, quick as blushes start, Will breathe my hidden secret in     Her unsuspecting heart.

And there I will live in her embrace    And the realm of sweetness there, Enamored with an ecstasy,    Of bliss beyond compare."

- In the Heart of a Rose, George Marion McClellan (1916)

[if-i-do-fall]

"I gaze into her eyes—their tender light, And strong, illumes my spirit's darkest night, And pours rich glory on me as a star Which brings its silver luster from afar.

Sweet thoughts and beautiful within me burn, And heaven I see what way soe’er I turn; In borrowed radiance of her soulful glance All things grow tenfold lovely and entrance.

I touch her willing hand—as gentle dove It rests within my own, in trusting love; And yet it moves me with a power so deep, My heart is flame, and all my pulses leap.

I breathe her name unto the flowers: they bloom With rarer hues, and shed more rich perfume! The skylark hears it, as he floats along, And adds new sweetness to his morning song.

Oh magic name! deep graven on my heart, And, as its owner, of myself a part! It hath in all my daily thoughts a share, And forms the burden of my nightly prayer!"

- Random Thoughts of Her, John Rollin Ridge (1868)

[if-i-do-fall]

“i would lasso the sun and sell her rays for profit so you wouldn’t be blinded by her anymore. i would eat all the stars just for you to see the light in my eyes. i would bounce my love off rainclouds just to soften your calcified heart.”

- The Chaos of Longing, K. Y. Robinson (2017)

[if-i-do-fall]

"When the first star with brilliance bright, Gleams lonely o’er the arch of night; When the bright moon dispels the gloom, And various are the stars that bloom, And brighten as the sun at noon,                                     Forget me not."

- Forget me not, Ann Plato (1841)