bare

here, I take you through every up and every down

[syntacked]

Sad birds still sing.

Unknown (via syntacked)

[shareaquote]

The most beautiful part of the pain is the poetry that follows

Ilyas | @shareaquote (via shareaquote)

[jolenedeecanessa-deactivated201]

These Elusive Pearls

I am a carnal creature

I smell of worldly pleasure

my heart cries Aba father

my heart is cloaked in sin

art and love seduces me

poetry manipulates me

like something shining in the water

when I reach for it

I drown.

-Dee

[rapeculturerealities]

'Comfort Woman' Memorial Statues, A Thorn In Japan's Side, Now Sit On Korean Buses

Statues symbolizing the World War II sex slaves abused by Japanese soldiers have appeared this year on Korean city buses — including on a bus line whose doors open right in front of Japan's embassy.

One goal of President Trump’s trip to Asia has been to rally America’s allies to help put pressure on North Korea. But the mission is complicated by the fact that America’s two staunchest allies in East Asia — Japan and South Korea — don’t get along well when it comes to issues involving their history.

Much of the friction dates to Japan’s occupation of Korea in the first part of the 20th century. Tensions related to that occupation still simmer — even 70 years after South Korea was liberated.

Things flared up again this year over a statue of a young girl known as the “Peace Statue.”

The small bronze figure depicts a girl sitting in a chair, staring straight ahead with a look of determination. She has cropped hair and wears a hanbok — a traditional Korean dress. She’s barefoot. Her fist is clenched. Next to her is an empty chair.

The girl memorializes women like Ahn Jeom-sun. She’s now 89 and says she has visited the statue often. It symbolizes the youth she lost at age 13, when the Japanese Imperial Army abducted her from her village.

“What I remember is that I was forcibly taken out of Korea and taken to China,” Ahn says.

The United Nations estimates 200,000 girls and women — mostly Koreans — were seized from villages to join Japan’s military sexual slavery program before and during the Second World War.

[mikerugnetta]

SATs do not measure those qualities, and they certainly do not measure the academic potential of a young Latina from Brewster, Wash., who has earned a 3.75 GPA while she holds down a job, plays a significant role in raising her younger siblings, and manages the family home because her parents work 12 to 18 hours a day picking crops. This particular student may not have a high SAT score, but there is no achievement gap for her. She has already achieved so much in her young life, and the richness and wisdom of her accomplishments will bring so much to any institution lucky enough to enroll her. Her achievements are as important a measure of quality for an institution as a high SAT.

Why Your College Should Dump the SAT. John Fraire, The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 28, 2014. (via mikerugnetta)

[noahwhyle]

I was leaving my apartment one day and someone I’ve known for a long time, my mom’s age, said to me, “Oh, wow, look at you!” ‘I tried to explain (that I had lost weight for a role) and she goes, “No! I want to know what you’re doing, you look great!” I got into the car with my mom and said, “This is why the problem exists.”’

Lily Collins (via emmsnelson)

[jspark3000]

We may not believe the same things, but I will love you for who you really are and not the version I’d ever wish you to be.

[cosmicwizdom]

The more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt. The one who does most to avoid suffering is, in the end, the one who suffers most.

Thomas Merton (via cosmicvibe)

[unkaglen]

Filled with rage towards God

Anonymous Struggling Christian asked: Hey Glen, I’m in a bad mental space about God. I don’t go to church or my bible study anymore. Reason being, I’m filled with rage every time I think about Him. I’m gay but I’m not supposed to be. God does nothing, and I hate Him for it. He’s more absent than my real dad. I’m stuck in this place and I’m not sure how to move on. I’m considering walking away from my faith completely. A new perspective would be appreciated.

Unka Glen answered: Okay, let’s make a few things clear from the start…

I don’t blame you for being filled with rage

Neither does God

It’s time you got an apology from Christians, so let me say be the one to say it: I’m deeply sorry for the way Christians have treated you

God takes me as I am, despite how messed up I am, and He takes you too. Screw everybody else. They don’t get it, they ain’t in on this, and they don’t get a say-so.

Christians owe you (and, frankly, the rest of us) an apology for giving us the almost laughable idea that if Jesus sat down at our kitchen table to discuss our life with us, the first thing, or perhaps the only thing He’d want to talk about is our sex life.

In your case, He’d want to talk with you about your dad being absent from your life. This has impacted nearly every aspect of your life, and it would be cruel for God to judge you for any of the problems and struggles that are related to your dad not being around. Even if those struggles include feeling angry at God.

God accepts you. Right now. As you are. He has plans for you, and a calling, and a purpose, and if you follow Him, it will be an amazing journey through all kinds of twists and turns.

Your sexuality, like everyone else’s, will eventually come up in the conversation, and at that time God will strengthen you to make changes to that sex life, so that it can become more fulfilling and enjoyable.

But here’s a fact that Christians don’t want you to hear: even if you make none of those changes, even if you run away from God, He will still love you. And if you make all these changes He will not love you more. He can’t love you more. You are loved to the uttermost, and your behavior does not have the power to change that.

And I love you. Right now. As you are. There are plenty of other Christians who feel the same way. It may take some looking to find them, and that looking may involve some heartbreak, but that’s what finding quality relationships is all about.

[wordsnquotes]

I want to get more comfortable being uncomfortable. I want to get more confident being uncertain. I don’t want to shrink back just because something isn’t easy. I want to push back, and make more room in the area between I can’t and I can.

Kristin Armstrong (via wordsnquotes)

[tblaberge]

Fear drives most of our lives; it disguises itself in our anger, pride, and selfishness. Learn to see where your fear manifests itself, then have the courage to lay it down and choose love.

T.B. LaBerge // Go Now (via tblaberge)

[mid-night-ink]

Did you know that stars, are a billion light years away? if you don't know what means, if means this: if we were crash about ten spaceships on the nearest star today, it would probably take us about a decade to see it Also meaning that if a star were to explode and die today, we wouldn't know about it it would still be up there, shining, always giving hope but never saying if its just a hoax I didn't know this before, all I knew was they had names The first night I spent with her I said, pick a star She pointed to the north Slender fingers pointing to the brightest in the night I said if that had a name, it'd be yours This was when you feared familiarization, The time you feared getting used to the things that were extraordinary now for the fear it being ordinary later how you promised never to get used to the everyday things You said you forgot her But the first house you bought with your wife was in the north, although more expensive you said it was just what you wanted Was this just what you wanted? Having lips that meet you every morning that reminds you of another How did you forget to remember? You said, you'd never be like your father Here you are proving that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree Don't dare blame anyone, you made a cage from yourself you yourself can't even flee You have stopped fearing the familiar Became addicted to the feeling of the comfortable The ring on your left finger shouldn't have been something heavy But you placed it there so you'd feel a bit more steady Reminding yourself that she just wasn't the girl for me Yet you refuse to live in the south, the east and the west and you painted on your sons navy blue room a bright star on the north wall Taught your little girl to find her way home by following the brightest in the night Her name is still unspeakable to you But I'll call her your north Call her the only ornament in your dark room, Call her the only way you'll ever find home Call her a dead star something you wished on and probably still held on to, probably still lit up your darkest of nights, but now you probably see, one that bore your light, love and more has died long before

Dead Stars // by Mid-night-Ink

[maxmundan]

Why do we spend all of our precious soft? trying to be hard talking like we’re hard dressing like we’re hard pretending to be hard moving like we’re hard acting like we’re hard writing like we’re hard living like we’re hard until we wake up one morning stone cold hard and we’d give anything everything to feel a little bit of soft

Max Mundan, Hard

© Max Mundan 2015

Get your very own copy of my new book, I’ll Only Write Poems for You, by clicking right HERE!

(via maxmundan)

[thedaughtersoflilith]

[celestial-dynasty]

I am not here for you to embellish your dreams upon, I am not a flawless individual. I am not a pastoral figure within an Arcadian landscape, I am not here to inspire your inner voyeurism. I am here out of my own action, to be standing before you is a state of unrest for me. I am going against my faith and my historic depths to be here. Do not tell me that I am as helpless as you, or that I am here because I am free; that you are imprisoned. I struggle for my moments of freedom, I have to act as an individual to create them. You have your privilege, you have your wealth and honour, and the only thing to hold you back is a fragile relationship built on bureaucracy. The world will welcome you. Yet, you are stagnant in your misery. You are on the verge of escape, yet refuse to open the gate. Instead you project passive dreams upon me, you expect my kind words to fulfil your happiness. But you will never be happy, and those dreams will never be met. Not until you step out into the land you have inherited. I refuse to allow it. I refuse to focus on your life, knowing that my only role is to fuel intangible, romantic notions. You have to act. You need to act. You must act.

Celestial Dynasty (via celestial-dynasty)

[poetryatmost]

If only you gave yourself as many second chances as you gave him.

Poetry At Most (via poetryatmost)

[1995june]

My only advice to you is to love, love, and love. Love like there will be no more sunrises or sunsets or no more tomorrows. And if by some chance the sun rises again and tomorrow arrives, love some more, love again.

Nicole Moon (via 1995june)